





THE UNIVERSITY — “| 


OF ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


224 
MS5n 


= 


UNIVERSITY OF 
ILLINOIS LIBRARY 
AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
BOOKSTACKS 





SPR 6% 





UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 


The person charging this material is responsible for its 
renewal or return to the library on or before the due date. 
The minimum fee for a lost item is $125.00, $300.00 for 
bound journals. 


Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons 
for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from 
the University. Please note: self-stick notes may result in 
torn pages and lift some inks. 

Renew via the Telephone Center at 217-333-8400, 
846-262-1510 (toll-free) or circlib @ uiuc.edu. 

Renew online by choosing the My Account option at: 
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/catalog/ 








THE UNIVERSITY of CHICAGO 
STUDIES IN SOCIAL SCIENCE 


Edited by 


A COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIAL 
SCIENCE DEPARTMENTS 


The University of Chicago Studies in Social Science are an 
expression of community of interests of the social sciences. The 
publication of these Studies is one of the results of a comprehensive 
program of research which has been undertaken by the departments 
concerned not only as separate departments but also as a group or 
conference of departments. The formation of this conference is an 
outgrowth of the belief that the social sciences should engage more 
actively and systematically in co-operative consideration of their 
problems and methodology. This does not imply any diminution 
of interest in the development of their special fields. The Studies, 
therefore, are to include the results of scientific investigations usually 
associated with the fields of each of the participating departments. 
But they will also include the results of joint investigations of 
several or all of these departments as well as studies in related fields. 


EprirorIiAL COMMITTEE 


L. C. MarsHatu, Chairman 
Department of Political Economy 


A. W. SMALL 
Department of Sociology and Anthropology 


C. E. Merriam 


Department of Political Science 


M. W. JERNEGAN 
Department of History 


T. V. Smita 
Department of Philosophy 
W. H. Spencer 
School of Commerce and Administration 
Epita ABBOTT 
Graduate School of Social Service Administration 


NON-VOTING 
Causes and Methods of Control 


THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 


THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 
NEW YORE 


THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
LONDON 


THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 
TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUKUOKA, SENDAI 


THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY 
SHANGHAI 


LbRARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 





Aa 


— 


yu eitene™ 
“é i 


SLACKERS WHO FAIL THEIR COUNTRY WHEN NEEDED 


Cartoon from the Chicago Tribur iain 1924, reprinted by courtesy of 
John cae and the Chic "ribun 


NON-VOTING 
| Causes and Methods of Control 


BY 


CHARLES EDWARD MERRIAM 
Professor of Political Science in the University of Chicago 


AND 
HAROLD FOOTE GOSNELL 


Instructor in Political Science in the University 
of Chicago 





THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 


Coprricut 1924 By 
Tur UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 


All Rights Reserved 


Published August 1924 


Composed and Printed By 
The University of Chicago Press 
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 


; 


PREFACE 


The large cities of the United States furnish ideal 
material for the study of democratic processes. The 
varied social classes, the heterogeneous population 
recruited from all parts of the world, and the compli- 
cated governmental structures put a considerable strain 
upon the theory of the competency of the citizens to 
run their own affairs. What may be said about Ameri- 
can cities in general applies with particular force to the 
city of Chicago. The rapid growth of Chicago, its large 
immigrant population, its growing negro population, its 
intricate governmental organization, its tangled politi- 
cal groupings, its many elective offices and elections are 
all factors which make the city a very desirable field 
for studying electoral problems. On the other hand, 
the mobility of the population of Chicago is probably 
greater than that of most of the other large American 
cities because of the great concentration of commer- 
cial and transportational activities in the city, and the 
election system is perhaps a little more antiquated and 


— unsuited for urban conditions than the election system 


found in most American cities. With these limitations 
in mind, the study of non-voting in a particular Chi- 
cago election, the mayoralty election of April 3, 1923, 
may be entered upon as a preliminary approach to the 
study of political motives. 

Registration for voting in Chicago is a personal 
matter, left entirely to the initiative of the individual 
citizen. March 13, 1923, was the only registration 
day in the city in advance of the mayoralty election 
for those who had not registered the preceding October 
or February in the particular precinct where they were 


Vil 


83724 


ee 


Vill PREFACE 


then residing. On and immediately prior to this date, 
the Chicago daily newspapers announced this solemn 
fact in such a way as to attract the attention of all who 
were interested or felt concerned; the precinct commit- 
teemen rushed about to inform their unregistered and 
unlettered constituents that the last time for them to 
make sure of their voting privileges had come; and the 
loyal Chicago electors urged their relatives, friends, and 
acquaintances who had not registered to avail them- 
selves of the last opportunity to put their names on the 
registration books. ‘The Democratic, Republican, and 
Socialist parties had each nominated a candidate for 
mayor in the February primary, and in twenty of the 
fifty wards of the city the aldermanic contest had been 
so close that a supplementary election on the same 
day as the mayoralty election was necessary. ‘The 
party organizations, the Municipal Voters’ League, the 
League of Women Voters, and all the civic or semi- 
political groupings in the city had been trying to arouse 
the interest of the municipal electorate in the most 
important function which it had to perform in connec- 
tion with the city government. The activities of these 
associations were reported in the newspapers, and 
discussed to some extent upon the street corners. In 
spite of the efforts of the political leaders to focus the 
attention of the 1,400,000 eligible electors upon the 
coming mayoralty election, there were only 900,000 
names upon the registration books when the lists were 
closed on March 17. In other words, there were over 
a half-million adult citizens who were not registered, 
a large proportion of whom were unaware that they had 
made a choice which virtually deprived them of their 
right to vote in the coming election. ‘Those who are 
interested in understanding the actual operation of 
popular government would like to know what is behind 


PREFACE 1x 


this failure on the part of a large number of eligible 
electors to avail themselves of their voting privileges. 
Are the persons who do not register any different from 
those whodo? Why isit that the stimuli which moved 
a majority of the adult citizens pollward on registration 
day had no effect upon the behavior of a substantial 
minority? ‘The first outstanding fact to notice is that 
nearly three-quarters of these non-registered adult 
citizens were women. Women were allowed to register 
for local elections in Chicago as early as 1913; yet, ten 
years later, not half of the adult female citizens in the 
city had established voting habits. This is a con- 
dition which leagues of women voters and women’s 
clubs have been trying to change, but there is much 
left for them to do. 

The mayoralty election was held on April 3, 1923. 
Following the last registration day, the party workers 
and the civic leaders concentrated their energy on 
getting out the largest proportion possible of the 
registered vote. They no longer paid any attention to 
the great mass of the unregistered. Campaign litera- 
ture and announcements of political meetings were sent 
to the registered voters, and many of the registered 
voters were called upon personally by the precinct 
committeemen. The newspapers gave full accounts of 
the important political meetings, printed editorials on 
the merits of the leading candidates, and sold advertis- 
ing space to the prosperous political organizations. 
The party workers realized that voting involved making 
a choice between two or more alternatives, and they 
consequently used all the devices that men commonly 
employ in persuading others to act. The desires, the 
intellects, the sympathies, the fears, the emotions, the 
traditions, and the habits of the registered voters were 
played upon by the political leaders in the hope that 


x PREFACE 


the desired response would be produced on election day. 
On the eventful day, some 723,000 citizens interrupted 
their customary routine long enough to go through the 
ritual of marking slips of paper. Some 182,000 persons 
who were registered did not vote. When this number is 
added to the number of adult citizens who were not 
registered, the grand total of the adult citizen non- 
voters equals some 740,000, or one-quarter of the total 
population in the city. In other words, one-half of the 
adult citizens of Chicago were unmoved by the stimuli 
which induced the other half to vote. Practically the 
same condition was found in the country at large in 
1920, for only one-half of the 54,000,000 adult citizens 
in the United States participated in the presidential 
election held in that year. 

The authors of this report, feeling that the local 
election was an important one and that the proportion 
of non-voters was typical, decided to make it the basis 
for a general analysis of the causes of non-voting. In 
trying to find out why one-half of the citizenry failed to 
vote, many difficulties were encountered. The study 
of human motives has not progressed very far in spite 
of some of the recent advances made by the psychol- 
ogists. It is obvious that the citizens who did not vote 
lacked the motives which moved the voters pollward. 
Another way of saying this would be that their atten- 
tion on election day was absorbed by other interests. 
Life in Chicago is under considerable pressure. ‘The 
election of some of the minor officers does not interest 
one-half of the qualified voters, not even to the point 
of giving up ten or fifteen minutes to marking a ballot. 
Rich, poor, and the moderately well-to-do have their 
“theaters, cafés, movies, social events, sports, ete. The 
women are engrossed in their social duties, their church 
functions, outside work, or care of their families. The 


PREFACE XI 


men are interested in their business, in their clubs, and 
in their lodges. A complete catalogue of the social 
situations which crowded out the electoral interests of 
700,000 individuals would be, of course, out of the ques- 
tion. On the other hand, it is not difficult to make some 
armchair generalizations about the causes of non-voting. 
Anyone who has ever been a negligent elector will find it 
easy to build up a number of rationalizations as to why 
he did not vote. Writers on government and politics 
have decried the indifference of the electorate ever since 
the rise of representative institutions. The present 
work does not repeat these vague misgivings. It is 
rather an attempt to present a mass of concrete ma- 
terial, gathered with painstaking care, on the basis of 
which students of politics may get behind some of the 
current notions as to the way in which democratic 
government is working. 

In order to make an accurate survey of even a small 
portion of those who did not vote in the election, the 
authors soon found that it was necessary to secure the 
co-operation of many individuals. Information was 
needed from the federal census officials, from the local 
election officials, and from the local party workers. 
The assistance of a corps of competent field workers, 
statisticians, computers, and general clerical workers 
was also necessary. The study was made under the 
auspices of the Local Community Research Committee 
of the University of Chicago. This committee was 
organized by the Departments of the Social Service 
Group of the University to administer the research 
made possible by a grant from the Laura Spelman 
Rockefeller Memorial to the trustees of which grate- 
ful acknowledgment is made. 

The authors feel that the book is only in a small part 
the product of their own labors. Those connected with 


Xl PREFACE 


the local election machinery from the Election Com- 
missioners to the most humble employee on their force, 
party leaders in the city ranging in importance from 
the head of a city organization to a precinct captain’s 
second assistant, and the students at the University of 
Chicago connected with the Department of Political 
Science rendered services that were absolutely indispen- 
sable to the collection and compilation of the data 
presented. ‘To the Hon. Edmund K. Jarecki, who as 
county judge of Cook County had general supervision 
over the election system; to the Hon. Martin J. 
O’Brien, city controller and organization chairman of 
the Democratic party in the city; to Hon. Edward J. 
Brundage, attorney-general of the state of Illinois and 
Republican ward committeeman; to Messrs. Anthony 
Czarnecki, Harry A. Lipsky, and Fred V. Maguire, 
members of the Board of Election’ Commissioners; to 
Hon. U.S. Schwartz, member of the City Council; to 
Mr. Roy O. West, Republican ward committeeman; 
to Mr. John S. Rusch, chief clerk of the Board of Elec- 
tion Commissioners; to Mr. Louis Revor, of the Statis- 
tical Division of the Controller’s Office; and to Mrs. 
Emma Chaloupka, interpreter and special field worker, 
the authors are especially indebted. Controller O’Brien 
furnished the complete list of Democratic precinct com- 
mitteemen, sent a personal letter to over half of them, 
and made available the use of the tabulating machines 
in the statistical division of his office. Judge Jarecki and 
the Board of Election Commissioners opened up the elec- 
tion records and assisted in every way possible. The 
actual gathering of the concrete data about the 6,000 
non-voters discussed in this book was done by graduate 
students in the Department. To Miss Pearl Robertson, 
Mrs. Loraine R. Green, Mr. Norman Wood Beck, Mr. 
Roy V. Peel, Mr. Max Swiren, and the other students of 


PREFACE Xlll 


the social sciences in the University of Chicago who 
spent many warm days walking the streets and climbing 
stairs in order to establish face-to-face contacts with non- 
_ voters, the authors are under peculiar obligations. ‘The 
authors have also to be thankful for the ingenuity and 
resourcefulness that these students showed in finding 
out the reasons why the citizens in certain selected 
areas of the city did not vote. Finally, to Professors 
Quincy Wright and Leonard D. White, who read por- 
tions of the manuscript and made many helpful criti- 
cisms, the authors wish to make acknowledgments. 
While in organizing the material the authors have 
co-operated throughout, Mr. Merriam is primarily 
responsible for the chapters on methods, and Mr. 
Gosnell for the remaining chapters. 


CHARLES EpwaRp MERRIAM 
Haroup Footer GOsSNELL 


UNIVERSITY oF CHICAGO 
June, 1924 











6d 
{ 
tal 
rig 
‘ 









tt ‘ 
os, 
if 
i 
4 
7, 
» 
ib 
’ 
73% 
£ 





A 
Vy 








2 


ate 


rr aes, 
(Sauye, 

’ ¢ 

yi hah PA xt 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


I. 


II. 
IIT. 


IV. 


VI. 


VII. 


VII. 
IX. 


. DISBELIEF IN WoMAN’s VOTING 


. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 


Tur Mertuop or Inquiry 


Judgment and Insight of Bieoertd Weert enien of 6,000 
Non-Voters—Social Data—Study of Particular Pre- 
cincts, Neighborhoods, Groups, and Individuals 


GENERAL ANALYSIS OF CAUSES OF NON-VOTING 


PuysicaL DIFFICULTIES 


IlIness—Absence—Detained by Helpless Meee of 
Family 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES . 


Insufficient Legal Residence—Fear of Loss of Business 
or Wages—Poor Voting Facilities—Fear of Disclosure of 
Age 


Anti-Suffragist—Objections of Husband 


DisGust WITH Po.rtics AND OTHER DISBELIEFS IN 
VoTING 


Disgust with aa ete ae ae Party—Belief 
That One Vote Counts for Nothing—Belief That the 
Ballot Box Is Corrupted—Disbelief in All Political 
Action 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 


General Indifference—Indifference to Particular ie 
tion—Neglect: Intended to Vote but Failed—Ignorance 
or Timidity Regarding Elections—Failure of Party 
Workers | 


PRECINCT STUDIES 


Meruops or Controuuinc Non-VotTinG 


xV 


PAGE 


25 


52 


78 


. 109 


. 123 


. 158 


. 202 
. 232 


. 250 


XV1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 


APPENDIXES* PAGE 


A. TABULATIONS OF ORIGINAL DATA ow oe a eS 

B. Forms UsSep IN THE Stupy of Non-VoTInG . . . . 262 

C. SUGGESTIONS AS TO PROCEDURE IN FuTuRE STUDIES OF 
Non-VotTinG e e e e e e e « . ° e e Q75 


Tepex? BR ON OR a a) ee 


CHAPTER I 
THE METHOD OF INQUIRY 


The fundamental problem in the study of non-voting 
is to ascertain the situations under which the franchise 
is not exercised by those who possess it. The reverse 
side of the problem would be, What are the situations 
under which men vote? A complete study involves an 
inquiry into the interests or motives both of voters and 
of non-voters, of the drives that animate them to vote, 
of the obstacles—physical, legal, social, or otherwise— 
that inhibit them from voting. This particular part 
of the investigation is limited to the side of inactivity 
or non-exercise of the voting rights. But, as often 
happens in the study of the abnormal or pathological, 
much light is thrown on the normal. The striking 
characteristics of the abnormal are often only the 
exaggeration, sometimes only slight, of the character- 
istics of the normal individual. So the traits of the 
non-voter are often only the slight enlargement of the 
traits of the voter, and tend to show what is really 
going on in the electoral process that plays so important 
a part in modern political and social life. 

The indifference, the neglect, the attitude toward 
government, the prejudice, that characterize the non- 
voter, are not things apart, but are the development of 
similar characteristics found in the great mass of the 
voters. If Mr. A does not vote because the taxes are 
high, or Mrs. B does not vote because her husband 
objects, or Mr. C because all politics is corrupt, or 
Mrs. D does not vote because of unfamiliarity with the 
electoral mechanism or timidity regarding it, then all 

1 


2 NON-VOTING 


these conditions probably prevail throughout the whole 
community in slightly less-pronounced degree. In 
these particular instances they were strong enough to 
prevent the exercise of the franchise, while in others 
they were overcome by other interests and motives. 
Another: section of this study would therefore include 
inevitably an inquiry into the motives of the voter with 
a view of discovering in microscopic manner the situa- 
tions under which the voting impulse is strongest, of 
analyzing these situations as sharply as possible, and of 
ascertaining their origin and development, or, on the 
other hand, their decline. We should enter here into a 
field of custom, suggestion, specific personal interest, 
group interest, sporting interest, civic obligation, and 
a whole series of yet unexplored lands in the world of 
political experience. Doubtless the inquiring mind of 
the investigator will some day map and chart them. 

Another problem arising out of the study of non- 
voting is the means of control over the process. If we 
know the situations out of which non-voting arises, 
then to what extent may we stimulate or depress non- 
voting? ‘To what extent might we produce more or, 
if we desired to do so, less voting ? Obviously this is a 
field in which experiments might be outlined and under- 
taken on a considerable scale, if the facilities were 
available. This topic is discussed in later chapters of 
this study, but relatively little was done with it in this 
investigation. The subject was reserved for further 
development. 

This particular study was based upon an election for 
the office of mayor of Chicago in April, 1923. It is not 
assumed that the facts then found or the conclusions 
reached are common to all elections at all times and 
places. Some of the situations found are probably 
general, but others are distinctly peculiar to the par- 


THE METHOD OF INQUIRY 3 


ticular situation. Care must therefore be taken in 
generalizing too broadly from the data or conclusions 
assembled in this study. Many studies of many more 
situations will be necessary before it is possible to 
obtain that thorough knowledge of the process upon 
which broad conclusions may safely be rested. 

It may be said at the outset that those in charge of 
the inquiry had a wide background of practical political 
experience with voters and non-voters. ‘This included 
active service in party organization, candidacy for office, 
incumbency in public office, many years of close obser- 
vation of the electoral process in a number of states, 
and an unusually intimate knowledge of the electoral 
process and the social factors in the Chicago situation 
and in the particular election studied. ‘Tentative 
studies of non-voting had been tried in several graduate 
courses in political parties with a view of surveying the 
problem and of learning some of the practical difficulties 
that would arise in actual observation.! These pre- 
liminary studies suggested many of the typical problems 
and advantages that might be derived from this form 
of investigation. 

_7 The chief sources of information in the present study 
may be classified as follows: 

1. The judgment and insight of some 300 experts in 
the electoral processes. 

2. Examination of 6,000 non-voters in the election. 

3. Data as to sex, age, length of residence, citizen- 
ship status of 5,000 voters obtained from the books 
of the Election Commissioners and other election 
statistics. " 

1JIn 1922, some 1,000 observations of non-voters were made by the 
National League of Women Voters under the direction of Mr. Merriam, but 


it proved impossible to carry on this work successfully without trained 
observers under close supervision. 


a NON-VOTING 


4. Census data from ten enumeration districts, 
showing male and female, native-born, foreign-born, 
and naturalized. 

5. Some study of particular precincts, neighbor- 
hoods, groups, and individuals. 


JUDGMENT AND INSIGHT OF EXPERTS 


Some 300 persons familiar with voting and non- 
voting in Chicago were consulted as to the situations 
under which men do not vote. A part of these were 
the precinct committeemen and other officials of the 
Democratic and Republican organizations, another 
part were officeholders, and another section men and 
women active in local political affairs and in position 
to observe closely the electoral process. A number of 
these were consulted personally, and a questionnaire 
was filled out by others. _ 

Signers were asked to indicate in the order of rela- 
tive importance their reasons for non-voting, or to add 
other reasons not mentioned in the schedule. In some 
instances valuable and significant comments were 
returned by these experts in voting processes,? although 
in other cases it appeared that relatively little thought 
had been given to the general problem. For example, 
a Democratic official in an overwhelmingly Republican 
territory or a Republican official in an overwhelmingly 
Democratic territory is not primarily interested in 
getting out the whole vote, but only that part of it in 
which he is primarily concerned. Some of these com- 
ments indicate a very intensive acquaintance with a 
particular area or set of voters, and shrewd insight into 
the situations under which non-voting occurs. More 
intensive inquiry in this field would probably yield very 


1 See Appendix B (p. 271) for a reproduction of the questionnaire used. 
2 See chap. viii. 


THE METHOD OF INQUIRY 5 


valuable results, especially in the form of specific cases. 
On the other hand, there are certain citizens who are 
unwilling to disclose to the regular committeemen the 
reasons for their unwillingness to vote, especially where 
this is due to disgust with politics, or to fear or timidity 
as to disclosing their party affiliation. 

Broadly speaking, the results of the experts’ judg- 
ment and the analysis of the returns of the 6,000 
examinations were not widely different except in two 
particulars: 

1. The experts failed to include some reasons devel- 
oped in the course of the examination, as home nursing 
of the sick, objections of husband, failure of party 
workers, indifference to last election. Doubtless they 
were fully aware of these situations but did not include 
them in their analyses. 

2. Our examination of non-voters made it possible — 
to arrive at a quantitative estimate of the amount of | 
non-voting and of its distribution among various groups. | 
Undoubtedly the experts possessed ample information | 
regarding the special groups with which they were © 
familiar, but they were not in position to assemble the 
material and to show the relative proportions of non- 
voting among the several groups of voters in the city. 


EXAMINATION OF 6,000 NON-VOTERS 


Some 6,000 persons who did not vote in the mayor- 
alty election of 1923 were examined by our investi- 
gators. ‘These non-voters were selected with a view of 
obtaining a representative sample of the 700,000 non- 
voters in this’ election. The following groups were 
included: sex, age, nationality, economic status, occu- 
pation, length of residence. ‘The samples were taken 
from: the groups scattered over the entire city, and as 
broadly distributed as possible. While the 6,000 non- 


6 NON-VOTING 


voters represent a little less than 1 per cent of all the 
non-voters, it is believed that the careful selection of 
groups and types has given a fairly representative set 
of the situations to be studied. A larger sample would 
have been more typical, but the cost would have been 
prohibitive, as interviewing individual non-voters is 
a slow and expensive process. ‘That a fairly representa- 
tive group was obtained is indicated by Table I below. 


TABLE I 


Cotor AND Nativity or Apuut CiTizENs IN CHICAGO AND OF 
5,310 Non-Voters INTERVIEWED 


Aputt Non-VoTerRs 
INTERVIEWED 
(ELECTION OF 


Apvutt CITIZENS IN 
Cuicaco (1920 








Ce Aprit 8, 1923) 
CoLor AND NATIVITY Oe SS 
Per Cent Per Cent 
Number Distri- || Number | Distri- 
bution bution 
Total cee ay eel ee eee eae 1,366,515 | 100.0 || 5,3104| 100.0 
Native white—native parentage.....| 345,017 | 25.1 || 1,323 | 25.0 
Native white—foreign parentage....}| 529,800 | 39.0 || 1,308 | 25.0 
Native white—parentage unknown. .]..........]....... 331 6.0 
Negroni ie Ge er eee 88,620 | 6.0 350t| 6.6 
Foreign-born white—naturalized....| 403,078 | 29.9 || 1,998 | 37.4 
Country of birth of foreign-born 
white: Wy 
England and Canada............ 25,461 129 99 1.8 
Treland sca ioe eka ae ae eee 41,456 3.0 123 2.8 
Germany and Austria............ 99 ,123 7i2 368 6.9 
Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.. . 53,9389 4.0 303 5.7 
Russia Uses ec aiceia se 39 , 068 2.9 277 5.2 
Poland Ya i eae i ei aide ee 43,840 3.2 286 5.4 
Czecho-Slovakia, Jugo-Slavia, and 
Huigary ee see ee eee wee _ 89,154 2.9 939 4b 
Ltaly ies Puen see aM Le ae aR 18,156 1.8 268 5.0 
All other countries.............. 42,882 3.5 85 0.6 
* TI, 846. 


_ + Excluding 69 per cent of the colored non-voters interviewed. For an explanation of 
this correction, see p. 35. 


This shows the comparative distribution of citizen popu- 
lation in Chicago and the distribution of the non-voters 
interviewed. An excessive number of colored citizens 


THE METHOD OF INQUIRY 7 


was canvassed, but this disproportion was corrected 
by reducing the figure in the corrected percentage 
tables. The colored people canvassed were located in 
the most typical colored sections of the city. 

It is also plain that the sex group was fairly typical, 
as is shown by the following figures in Table IT: 


TABLE II 
Sex or Voters AND Non-VoTers IN CHICAGO 


For Entime Crry, Aprin 3, 1923 For SrELectTeD AREAS 
Non-Voters Registered Non-Voters 
* 
Voters (Estimated) ¢ Voterst Interviewed§ 
SEx SEER SOR 

ikea Aba) nee Per 

ent ent ent Cent 
Number | pistri- | Number | pistri- || Number) pistri- |Number| nistri- 
bution bution bution bution 


Male..... 464,289] 64.0 | 273,686] 36.7 || 3,313] 64.3 | 1,681] 31.6 
Female... .| 258,978] 36.0 | 470,683] 63.3 || 1,846] 35.7 | 3,629] 68.4 


* Figures from records of Board of Election Commissioners. 

+ The mode of arriving at this estimate is given on p. 26. 

t Data from registration books of eleven typical precincts as of March, 1923. 

§ Excluding 69 per cent of the colored non-voters interviewed. 

That the sample taken was fairly representative is 
further shown by the fact that the characteristics 
found in‘the first small samples were maintained in 
other and larger samples as the inquiry went on. 
The later material accumulated, for example in racial 
analysis, confirmed the earlier material, thus giving 
consistency and uniformity to the sample, and tending 
to establish its representative nature. 

The lists of non-voters were obtained by checking 
the printed registration lists with the poll books and 
the names on the doorplates, and by inquiry from door 
to door. Some names were supplied by the precinct 
committeemen of the parties or by others familiar with 
the neighborhood studied. After all, the least difficult 


8 | NON-VOTING 


of the problems was that of finding large numbers of 
persons who did not vote. Nor in most cases, some- 
what to our surprise, was any difficulty encountered in 
obtaining information from the non-voters themselves, 
who were frequently found to be accommodatingly 
communicative. Some, of course, were reticent or 
suspicious, but most were not; and some were even 
loquacious. 

These non-voters were examined by investigators, 
most of whom were graduate students of political 
science, especially trained for the purpose and closely 
supervised in the conduct of their work. Their efforts 
were supplemented by special types of workers in some 
cases, and they were aided by interpreters in a few 
instances. In most cases, however, we were able to 
find investigators of appropriate linguistic ability. 
Every effort was made to obtain as full and accurate a 
statement of the facts as possible, and to avoid leading 
or suggestion to the non-voter, especially as to the cause 
of his inactivity. It is not to be presumed that this 
was done successfully or without bias in all cases. Nor 
is 1t safe to conclude that those interviewed either told 
the truth, or remembered accurately, or were able to 
analyze their own situation in all cases. But, on the 
whole, the data are believed to be fairly reliable. In 
any case, the facts are far more complete both qualita- 
tively and quantitatively than have ever been as- 
sembled before in any such inquiry, whatever greater 
degree of completeness and accuracy we may attain in 
the future. 

The data themselves may be divided into two 
groups: (1) data regarding the status of the individuals, 
and (2) data regarding the reasons for non-voting.! 


1 The schedule used for interviewing the individual non-voters is given 
on pp. 264-65. 


THE METHOD OF INQUIRY : 9 


Three types of non-voters may be distinguished in 
the community: (1) the non-naturalized, (2) the non- 
registered, and (3) the registered and non-voting’ . 
citizen. This inquiry did not undertake an examination. 
of the non-naturalized group—a separate and important © 
study. It included, however, the non-registered non- 
voter and the registered non-voter. <A distinction was 
made, then, between the habitual non-voter who does 
not even register or seldom registers and the citizen 
who is on the books but does not vote at a particular 
election. Of the citizens canvassed, there were 1,919 
registered and 3,369 not registered. In analyzing the 
results the difference between these classes was borne in 
mind, and was developed in the tabulations and 
interpretations. It was a part of the purpose of the 
inquiry to relate the reasons assigned to the social 
situations, with a view of determining as closely as 
possible the similarities existing between them. These 
social data and the reasons may therefore be considered. 

The social data collected include the following 
points: age, sex, color, country of birth, nationality, 
economic status, occupation, length of residence at 
address and in state, voting experience. 

The reasons for this selection may be very briefly 
explained. It was hoped that the age figures might 
reveal some facts regarding the tendency of the young, 
the old, or the middle-aged to vote, and at this point 
significant results were obtained. That there are 
significant differences between the sexes in regard to 
voting was already indicated by the registration figures 
of the city, aad it was believed that in this direction 
might be found important facts indicative of non-voting 
situations. Color, nativity, and nationality were be- 
lieved to contain some of the explanations of the 
voting problem, and the tabulations showed the value 


10 : NON-VOTING 


of the hypothesis and the experiment. Likewise, 
economic status was set down as an indication of 
value and as a possible differentiator of types of voters 
and non-voters. Occupation was also thought to be an 
index of possible variation of interest in governmental 
affairs, and proved to be a useful means of interpreta- 
tion. Length of residence has been held to have an 
influence upon the attachment of the voter to the 
government and the degree of his political interest. 
Previous voting experience showed whether the case 
was that of a habitual or an occasional non-voter. 

The reasons for non-voting were distributed under 
the following main heads: 


Physical difficulties 
Illness 
Absence 
Detained by helpless member of family 


Legal and administrative obstacles 
Insufficient legal residence 
Fear of loss of business or wages 
Congestion at the polls 
Poor location of polling booth 
Fear of disclosure of age 


Disbelief in voting 
Disbelief in woman’s voting 
Objections of husband 
Belief that one vote counts for nothing 
Disgust with politics 
Disgust with own party 
Belief that ballot box is corrupted 
Disbelief in all political action 


Inertia 
General indifference 
Indifference to particular election 
Neglect: intended to vote but failed 
Ignorance or timidity regarding elections 
Failure of party worker 


THE METHOD OF INQUIRY . ges) 


SOCIAL DATA 


As to the social data no great difficulty was found in 
collection of the material. Age, sex, and nationality 
were easily ascertained. ‘The index used in ascertain- 
ing economic status was the type of the neighborhood 
and the amount of rent paid. This was used as a rough 
basis of income and economic strength. The rent sur- 
vey made by the Chicago Telephone Company in 1920 
was used to furnish the figures regarding this item, as 
well as data obtained by the economists and the sociolo- 
gists in surveying certain neighborhoods. Occupation 
and term of residence were furnished by the non-voter 
himself without difficulty. In ascertaining economic 
status, not only were the rental figures employed, but 
various kinds of neighborhoods were examined in the 
‘effort to obtain a representative result. The tenement- 
house sections, the individual-house areas, the apart- 
ment sections, the rooming-house, and the hotel groups 
were all sampled. 

The cards returned by the investigators were care- 
fully examined and corrected or rejected, as occasion 
demanded. Frequent conference and consultation with 
the investigators made it possible to secure uniformity of 
method and result, within the limits of theinquiry. The 
6,000 cards were coded for the Hollerith key-punch, sorted, 
and tabulated.1. This made it possible to obtain accu- 
rate computation and a mass of cross-tabulation, which 
was of great value in analyzing the results of the inquiry. 
The number of combinations made in the course of the 
cross-tabulation was 150. Obviously some of the figures 
available for certain of the tabulations were very small, 
and hence not likely to be typical, but these were not 
employed in the significant calculations made. 


1These machines were made available to us through the courtesy of 
Controller O’Brien. 


12 NON-VOTING 


Sample of voters and non-voters.—In order to obtain 
a complete analysis it would have been necessary to 
take all the possible voters in the community, and then 
set up their characteristics as over against the char- 
acteristics of the voters and non-voters. This would 
give a complete picture of the electorate, including the 
voters and the non-voters, and so far as the social data 
are concerned, that is, age, sex, nationality, term of 
residence, occupation, and economic status, the differen- 
tials would be incontestable. To take the whole 
electorate of Chicago and analyze it upon this compre- 
hensive basis was of course impossible within the limits 
of this inquiry. 

A sample was taken, however, of some 5,000 regis- 
tered voters, about the same number as of the non-voters 
interviewed, and from the same areas. ‘The facts avail- 
able were taken from the books of the Election Com- 
missioners, and included age, sex, nativity, term of 
residence, type of citizenship (by birth or naturaliza- 
tion).! The characteristics of these 5,000 voters were 
then compared with those of the same number of non- 
voters (see Tables I, IV, and V for these data). This, 
of course, is not a perfect control group as some of the 
non-voters are not included in the 5,000 taken from the 
commissioners’ books, and some of those on the books 
overlap the area examined by our investigators. How- 
ever, it is valuable as illustrating the possibility of such 
an analysis made perhaps upon a more extensive and a 
more intensive scale in the future. A small area could, 
of course, be analyzed upon this basis, but unless a 
considerable number of voters were included, the value 
of the analysis would be relatively slight. 

In addition to this, data were obtained from the 
Census Bureau regarding ten enumeration districts in 

1See Appendix B, p. 274, for the form of the registration book. 


THE METHOD OF INQUIRY 18 


Chicago. These districts coincided with ten election 
precincts that were studied.! Thecensus figures showed 
the number of males and females; whether native- 
born, foreign-born, or naturalized, and if not native-born 
the country of nativity. In ten precincts the actual 
list of registered voters was compared with the census 
list containing all inhabitants of the precinct, whether 
registered or not, or whether citizens or not. In these 
cases it was possible to determine accurately the ratio 
of non-voting among various racial groups and also 
the sex-nationality differentials. Had not limitations 
of time and expense forbidden, it would have been 
desirable to extend this analysis to all of the 2,000 
precincts of the city. 

Validity of reasons.—A problem which caused the 
investigators much thought was whether the data 
supplied by those examined regarding the reasons for 
their non-voting were accurate. Were the non-voters 
able to analyze their own situation accurately; did 
they recall the situation vividly; did they always tell 
the truth? As the inquiry was made shortly after 
the election, their memories were probably equal to the 
occasion. Our judgment is that the overwhelming 
majority of them told the truth as best they could. 
Of course the man who could not vote because he was 
in jail did not tell us that, although the precinct com- 
mitteeman did in one instance, or the man who was 
-paid to vote did not supply that information. In 
certain classes of cases there is little reason to doubt the 
validity of the answer, as, for example, the voter who 
explained that he was absent or possessed insufficient 
legal residence, or the voter who disbelieved positively 
in woman’s voting, or the few (probably typical of a 


1 Where the boundaries of precinct and enumeration district were not 
exactly coterminous, they were made so by elimination of certain blocks. 


14 NON-VOTING 


larger number) who said they were afraid of loss of 
business or wages, or that they did not care to disclose 
their ages. Illness, neglect, ignorance and timidity, 
disgust with politics or with party, congestion at the 
polls, may of course be pretexts which do not vary much 
from the comprehensive category of “general indiffer- 
ence”’ under which we were obliged to cast many of the 
non-voters. It is possible that special pretexts may be 
a form of general indifference to things political or to 
this particular election. 

This difficulty is a serious one, but it may be made 
to appear more significant than is actually the case. 
General indifference itself, the broadest of the cate- 
gories, may be compared with various social factors such 
as age, sex, economic status, and thus its basis in an 
underlying situation discovered. Its connection with 
sex, or with certain nationalistic groups, or with sex and 
nationalistic group together, may readily be observed. 

Furthermore, while in tabulating the non-voters’ 
answers one reason was assigned to each non-voter as 
the chief reason, account was taken of groups of reasons 
(see Tables XIX and XX [Appendix]). Here the cumu- 
lation of reasons is tabulated as well as the individual 
eases. Thus general indifference is assigned as the 
only reason in 1,289 cases, but one of several reasons in 
2,240 cases. The combinations of reasons are given in 
detail and constitute a check on the overemphasis of 
any one reason given by the non-voter interviewed. In 
addition, then, to the four major groups, namely, 
physical difficulties, legal and administrative obstacles, 
disbelief in voting, general indifference «nd inertia, is 
the combination of reasons in any one of these groups 
with reasons in another group. 

It may be concluded, then, that the classification of 
non-voters in relation to the social data is substantially 


THE METHOD OF INQUIRY 15 


valid. The classification of reasons is subject to the 
qualifications already given, both in the general per- 
centages given and in relation to the special groups 
enumerated. No effort is made in the tables given in 
this report or in the comment upon them to extract 
more from these reasons than is contained in them, 
and it is hoped that attention will be given to the 
limitations to which reference has just been made. But 
with these limitations and qualifications they constitute, 
it is believed, a very useful series of data in regard to 
the behavior and the mental operations of the non- 
voter in this particular election. It is hoped that they 
may point the way to other studies of a similar nature 
in which our knowledge of the electoral process and the 
psychology of the non-voter and the voter as well may 
be materially advanced. In any event, these data 
mark a serious systematic effort, perhaps the first of 
the kind, to survey the attitude of the non-voter, and 
to ascertain the motives, interests, or situations leading 
to the non-exercise of the franchise. This is in effect 
a more intimate inquiry into the inner working of the 
democratic process, of which much is said in theory, 
but which has been the subject of relatively few sys- 
tematic observations. 

Comparison of social data with non-voting.—The next 
significant task was the relation of the social data 
obtained to the reasons. The age groups, the nation- 
alistic groups, the sex groups, the economic status 
groups, the occupational groups, and the length of 
residence groups were to be related to the four principal 
types of reasons for non-voting and some of the sub- 
classes. ‘The number of such combinations is of course 
very large, and not all of theni possess great significance, 
chiefly because of the small number of cases in some of 
the more minute subdivisions. In other instances, as 


16 NON-VOTING 


notably in the case of sex variations and of nationalistic 
differences, the relations are of material value. The 
value of the relationship set up is of course greatest 
when the group in which the comparison is being made, 
as, for example, a nationalistic group, is proportioned 
to its strength in the city, assuming that the sample is 
a representative one. Thus the percentage of non- 
voting among German women may be established in 
this manner. On the other hand, the distribution of 
the non-voters by occupations, without knowing how 
many there are of each of the occupations, is of rela- 
tively little value. 

The most satisfactory results were obesinel where 
it was possible to cumulate the social data in relation 
to some specific reason. ‘Thus it might be said: “The 
person who gives absence as a reason for non-voting is 
likely to be native white, male, registered, middle-aged, 
well-to-do, engaged in business,” since this combina- 
tion of social characteristics fits the non-voter who 
assigns this as a reason for his non-participation. A 
still stronger case is presented when a combination of 
social data is related to a combination of “reasons”’ for 
non-voting. In this instance, the probability of error 
is diminished very greatly. 

The two special cautions to be observed in dealing 
with the data here presented in the form of relation- 
ships between reasons and social factors are found in 
the circumstances already cited: first, that the reasons 
may be erroneous if the assigned reason is not in fact 
the most significant; and secondly, the danger that the 
sample may be too small to be typical. This latter set 
of facts may readily be checked by examination of the 
tables and the analyses there set forth. There is also 
a factor to be reckoned with in the possibility of other 
conclusions if the whole population of a given area 


THE METHOD OF INQUIRY 17 


were to be included, covering the voters as well as the 
non-voters. 

On the whole, however, the analysis of data, it is 
believed, is substantially sound as far as this particular 
election is concerned, whatever may be found in some 
other election or in some other part of the country. 
The analysis is not presented as a perfect one, but as 
illustrative, suggestive, and typical, and in the hope that 
it may stimulate other studies of the same general type 
in the course of which better methods may be devised 
and conclusions of more general value established. 


STUDY OF PARTICULAR PRECINCTS, NEIGHBOR- 
HOODS, GROUPS, AND INDIVIDUALS 

Another line of approach to the study of non-voting 
is the intensive study of geographical areas, or neighbor- 
hoods, or of groups, or the case study of individuals. 
Some of these studies were attempted, although the 
general characteristic of the inquiry was that of study 
of the representative sample of non-voters. In all, some 
eighty precincts in the city were studied in the sense 
that a large proportion of the citizens in a precinct were 
canvassed, and that attention was given to the general 
characteristics of the neighborhood. Some of the colored 
precincts were studied in considerable detail by one of 
our workers who was very skilful in such investigation. 
A discussion of some of the results is contained in 
chapter viil. 

Neighborhoods and groups were also scrutinized with 
reference to their economic basis, the nationalistic com- 
position of the neighborhood, and the housing condi- 
tions. It would have been possible to study the entire 
situation by racial groups or by occupational groups or 
by economic class groups, and there is much to be said 
for such a method of procedure. Thus it would be 
possible to examine the Irish or the Bohemian or the 


18 NON-VOTING 


Scandinavian or the colored group of voters or non- 
voters as such, and with reference to their general group 
characteristics in relation to non-voting. To some 
extent this has been done in the analysis of the non- 
voting figures by nationalities, and also in the analysis 
by occupations (see chap. ii). The characteristics of 
certain occupational and nationalistic groups by this 
process emerge with some distinctness, and constitute 
a valuable part of the study. 

Likewise, case studies of individual voters might well 
be undertaken upon a large scale. It would be possible 
to study the political life-histories of non-voters and 
trace the situations leading to indifference toward the 
work of government. How does A come to be a non- 
voter? What was there in his experience or education 
or interests, or those of his friends or group, that 
produced in him the attitude of indifference? Many of 
these were indicated in the most striking manner by 
the non-voters who were examined by our investigation, 
but it would be useful to follow these up still more 
minutely, and determine in a considerable number of 
cases the genetics of the non-voter. 

To recapitulate, this is a study of non- voting it in a 
particular election, that of April, 1923, for the office of 
mayor of Chicago. Allowance must always be made 
for the special features of this election, affecting special 
groups in a particular way. The material used was 
the judgment of political experts; the examination of 
6,000 non-voters; data obtained from the election 
records as to age, length of citizenship and residence; 
and finally some studies of particular precincts, neigh- 
borhoods, groups, and individuals. ‘This material was 
supplemented from the experience and observation of 
the chief investigators, and such insights into the 
electoral process as they might muster. 


THE METHOD OF INQUIRY 19 


The conclusions drawn are not generalizations uni- 
versally applicable to all electorates and all elections, 
but are limited to the special case in question. Doubt- 
less many of the conclusions regarding this particular 
case are applicable to many other electorates, but others 
are not and should not be so used. In another election, 
to take a concrete example, the colored vote may be 
much larger, or the German or the Italian vote may 
vary widely, or the Irish vote may show other symp- 
toms. The method illustrated here has value only if 
used with care and with the precautions and modifica- 
tions here suggested. The conclusions likewise have 
value only as they are applied with proper realization 
of their limitations and their real significance. 

Types of new studies —Growing out of the studies 
that have been made are certain suggestions as to 
further inquiries into the subject of non-voting or of 
voting itself. These may be briefly considered at this 
point. 

First of all is the suggestion that additional studies of 
non-voting be made not only in Chicago but in other 
jurisdictions as well. Non-voting studies might well 
be made in a great variety of conditions, both urban 
and rural, east and west, north and south, among all 
types of groups and under all possible conditions. A 
long series of such inquiries would yield a rich harvest 
of material, out of which generalizations might be 
made, and from which very valuable insights into the 
character of the electoral process might be obtained. 
It must be assumed that as further investigations were 
made improved methods would be developed and new 
problems would be revealed. The result should be a 
flood of light upon the electoral process, and far deeper 
understanding of one of the most important phenomena 
in modern life. There is already reason to believe that 


20 NON-VOTING 


many such studies will be projected in the near future, 
and that notable results will follow the inquiries. 

Significant variations of the method here employed 
are the following: 

A study of a complete electorate, including voters 
and non-voters. If adequate social data were collected 
for voters as well as non-voters, it would then be 
possible to set up an exact correlation between them. 
This should prove of very great value in ascertaining the 
differential in characteristics between the citizen who 
participates in the electoral process and the one who 
remains indifferent or inactive. The result would be 
limited by the significance of the social data collected, 
and it would be necessary to set up an elaborate series 
of inquiries in order to reach any definite conclusions, 
but the more complete the inquiry the more satisfactory 
would be the result. 

Another possible type of study is that of non- 
naturalization, an examination of the situations under 
which men do not become members of the political 
group of which they are parts, socially and industrially. 
Obvious reasons might be found in some cases but in 
others the search would require much earnest toil. 
There is reason to believe, however, that the results 
would be very valuable and significant, and would tend 
to aid in the problem of non-voting among those who 
are already citizens. 

Three types of method have been suggested as 
capable of more intensive development than was found 
possible in this inquiry. These were the intensive 
study of the precinct or other geographical area; the 
intensive study of special types of groups—economic, 
nationalistic, religious or otherwise; the intensive study 
of the life-history, politically or socially, of specific 
individuals. Out of these intensive studies should come 


THE METHOD OF INQUIRY 21 


further information and insight into the nature of the 
_ groups that either do or do not incline toward active 
participation in the electoral process. In the field of 
indifference and of inertia, much is to be learned by the 
microscopic examination of the special situations in 
_which particular groups of men or particular individuals 
find themselves at given times. This method will 
supplement the representative sample method employed 
in this investigation, and the two in combination should 
give a larger result than with either alone. 

Another important type of inquiry is of a somewhat 
different character. This would involve experiment 
with special situations, with the purpose of determining 
to what extent they may be affected by specific stimuli. 
Assuming that we have in mind the situations under 
which non-voting occurs, how may these circumstances 
or situations be changed? ‘To ascertain this, actual 
experiments might readily be made with special groups 
of voters, using various devices designed to offset the 
particular obstacles to voting in the given jurisdiction. 
If the difficulty indicated is ignorance and timidity, 
then what methods may be employed to change this 
condition? If the abstention is due to neglect, then 
what may alter this adverse situation? If the 
block is the general indifference so often encountered, 
what shall be the method of removing this hindrance ? 
And so on through the list of reasons for non-voting. 
Evidently some of the difficulties may be very readily 
cured, as in the case of congestion at the polls, or the 
care of helpless ones at home. Others are far more 
fundamental and reach down to the roots of the educa- 
tional process and the governmental situation itself. 

But, in any case, there is abundant room for experi- 
ment, and the results of special stimulus may readily be 
observed in the group upon which the experiment is 


22 NON-VOTING 


made. What is suggested is that a considerable num- 
ber of these experiments be undertaken in various parts 
of the country with a view of noting their effectiveness. 

It is planned during the next year to project certain 
of these experiments as a continuation of the present 
study, but it is hoped that many of them may be made 
in various sections of the country, so that a series of 
experiments and insights may be assembled and the 
benefit of experience made available to the whole 
country. The makers of this report will gladly keep 
in touch with any group engaged in such effort to 
stimulate or control the non-voting situation. 

The final type of study suggested has already been 
anticipated in the opening paragraph of this chapter— 
the study of the voter as well as of the non-voter. ‘The 
examination of the electoral process involves the 
intimate understanding of the interests, motives, and 
drives that cause the individual to vote, as well as the 
obstacles that prevent him from voting. Why does 
the individual vote at all? What does he seek to 
accomplish—the satisfaction of an individual interest, a 
group interest, a sporting interest, a habit, a going with 
the tide, a form of self-expression, a sense of civic 
obligation? If these questions or other similar ones 
are answered, then we may far better understand why 
men do not vote. We may then comprehend more 
nearly the significance of the whole electoral process, 
which still remains one of the least explored of the fields 
of politics. We have volumes on the machinery and 
the law and the theory of popular control, but practi- 
cally nothing on the motives that animate the voter and 
drive him forward continuously to political participa- 
tion. The study of the voter’s psychology is then one 
of the complementary studies that must be made before 
the non-voting problem may be settled. 


THE METHOD OF INQUIRY 23 


Another interesting and important phase of the in- 
vestigation of non-voting is the question whether the 
result of a particular election would be changed by the 
vote of those who did not participate in the election. 
If 100 per cent voted, would the outcome be any differ- 
ent from the result when 60 per cent voted? Do the 
voters really reflect the judgment of the rest of the 
community, or would the vote of the non-participating 
element change the result? This could be ascertained 
by a canvass of representative samples of those who 
did not vote in a given election. These voters might be 
taken at random, or they might more properly be chosen 
by groups typical of the community, as the nationalist 
groups, the economic status group, the age and sex 
groups, the occupation groups, the neighborhoods. By 
careful sampling it would be possible to present a fairly 
good picture of the attitude of the non-voter supple- 
menting that of the voter. Possibly the non-voter 
might not state accurately how he would have voted, 
or he might possibly be influenced by the actual out- 
come of the particular election. But it seems probable 
that a fairly reliable indication of the position of the 
non-voter might be obtained, if pains were taken to 
make the necessary canvass. 

The study of the causes for a particular act may be 
begun by asking what causal factors are present in the 
immediate determination of the act. In this study of 
the causes of non-voting at a particular Chicago 
election, no claim is made to finality or completeness. 
Only a few of the manifold and varied situations that 
resulted in the abstention of one-half of the citizenry 
are discussed. Furthermore, the group of causes 
presented may not be as important as those that other 
investigators might discover. On the other hand, 
this report does present a mass of concrete facts that 


24 NON-VOTING 


are related to the electoral activities of the people 
of a great urban community. The facts were obtained 
from the registration books of typical voting precincts, 
from a special tabulation of data from the schedules 
of the census enumerators that coincided with these 
precincts, from the testimony of a group of experts on 
party affairs, and from personal contacts with a repre- 
sentative sample of non-voters at the election. The 
relation of these facts to the condition of non-voting is 
shown by elaborate comparisons and cross-tabulations. 
Sound generalizations regarding the operation of demo- 
cratic government must be based upon such materials. 


CHAPTER II 


GENERAL ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 
OF NON-VOTING! 


The causes of non-voting are the facts that can be 
related to this condition. In trying to find out what 
facts are related to non-voting, two lines of attack 
will be followed in this chapter. An endeavor will 
be made, first, to describe the peculiar characteristics 
of those who failed to vote, and second, to describe 
the stimulating situations in which non-voters were 
found. 

The nature and composition of the population of 
the city as shown by the census figures, the telephone 
survey of rental values, and the records kept in the 
Election Commissioners’ office furnish a basis for some 
inferences regarding the distinguishing characteristics of 
non-voters. ‘The coincidence of the census with a 
presidential election in 1920 makes possible an analysis 
of non-voting by wards for that year. The wards in 
which the ratio of voters to the total number of adult 
citizens fell below the average of the city were populated 
largely by negroes or by whites living in hotels and 
rooming-houses. ‘The wards in which non-voting was 
most common among the adult female citizens were the 
predominately German, Italian, Polish, or Jewish wards. 
The census figures also show that the men in wards 
populated largely by Russian Jews, Bohemians, Italians, 
or Poles showed a greater interest in voting than was 
shown by the adult male citizens in the city at large. 
In the old Twentieth Ward, there were more men 

1 A Jess technical approach to the material is given in chap. viii. 

25 


26 NON-VOTING 


registered than there were adult male citizens... The 
women voted in relatively larger numbers in those 
wards where rental values were the highest and where 
the proportion of foreign-born was the lowest. From 
this it may be said that an unduly large proportion of 
the non-voting adult citizens were women of foreign 
extraction living in the poorest residential sections of 
the city. 

Although the mayoralty election came three years 
after the federal census was taken, it is possible to make 
some fairly accurate estimates as to sex and registration 
status. According to the census estimate for the mid- 
year, 1923, there were nearly 2,900,000 people in 
Chicago, or 7 per cent more than in 1920. Assuming 
that the ratio of adult citizens to the total population 
was about the same in 1923 as in 1920, it may be said 
that there were approximately 1,460,000 citizens. of 
voting age in the city at the time of the mayoralty 
election. The following table, based on these estimates 
and the voting records kept in the Election Com- 
missioners’ office, shows the importance of the factors of 
sex and registration status in the two elections: 


TABLE III 
Per Cent or ADULT Per Cent or ADULT Per Cent or REGISTERED 


ELEc- Cirizens REGISTERED Citizens VoTING Votre Cast 
TION eu MAE ESS AAP EMAON IY PEM 
YEAR 

Men |Women| Total Men | Women|! Total Men | Women| Total 


1920...} 80 49 65 75 46 60 94 92 93 
1928 7.) 77 46 62 63 35 49 82 fe 80 





In the local election there was a considerable falling 
off in the ratio of eligible electors registered and in the 
1'There was a lapse of ten months between the time the census was 


taken and the time of the election. During this time many foreigners were 
naturalized. For another explanation of this condition, see pp. 228-30. - 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES Q7 


ratio of registered vote cast. This decrease was 
especially marked among women. In both elections, 
however, two facts that are closely related to non-voting 
stand out clearly. First, many persons who possess 
all the legal qualifications for voting disfranchise them- 
selves by not registering, and second, there are many 
more women than men who do not vote. These two 
factors are correlated with each other as over one-half 
of all the adult citizens who did not vote on April 3, 
1923, were women who were not registered. 

It would have been fortunate from the standpoint of 
this study if complete social data regarding the voters 
and non-voters had been available. Since this was 
not the case, it was necessary to resort to a method of 
sampling. Non-voters were interviewed in certain 
selected areas. The investigators obtained information 
about the voting experience as well as the registration 
status of these non-voters. This made it possible to 
divide the sample of non-voters into three main groups: 
first, those who had voted in Chicago at some other 
time; second, those who had voted elsewhere; and 
third, those who had never voted. The first two classes 
may be called the occasional non-voters, and the second 
class may be termed the habitual non-voters. Of these 
two groups, the habitual non-voters are the most 
interesting from the standpoint of this study, for their 
attitudes were not the outgrowth of the particular 
political situation that existed in Chicago in the spring 
of 1923, but were rather the result of a lifetime practice. 
Something about the habitual non-voters has already 
been brought. to light in the ward analysis of non-voting 
for 1920 given above. The great bulk of habitual non- 
voters were of course in those wards where the per- 
centage of adult citizens registered was the smallest. 
Something about the occasional non-voters can be 


28 NON-VOTING 


learned from the election records. The lowest per- 
centage of the registered vote cast was in those wards 
and precincts which were populated by negroes or by 
native whites of native parentage. It is clear that 
many of the registered voters did not regard the 
mayoralty election as one of sufficient importance for 
them to take the trouble of voting. There were many 
Republican voters who were disaffected. Although 
two-thirds of the voters in 1920 cast their ballots for 
Harding, the Republican candidate for president of the 
United States,! in the mayoralty election the vote was as 
follows: William E. Dever, the Democratic candidate, 
390,413; Arthur Lueder, the Republican candidate, 
285,094; and William A. Cunnea, the Socialist candi- 
date, 41,186. Many prominent Republicans voted for 
Dever, but, on the other hand, there were thousands of 
Republican voters who, unable to resolve satisfactorily 
the conflict of religious, racial, partisan, economic, and 
sectional issues in the election, settled the matter by 
staying away from the polls.?, An unduly large propor- 
tion of the registered voters who did not vote were 
found in the best residential sections of the city. The 
sample of non-voters obtained by the survey method 
corroborated the view that foreign birth and the female 
sex were closely related to habitual non-voting, and 
that native birth was connected with indifference 
toward the particular election or occasional non-voting. 
. One-third of the habitual non-voters interviewed were 
foreign-born women who had acquired their citizenship. 
by marriage, while only one-seventh of all the adult citi- 

1 The actual vote was: Harding, 549,243; Cox, 182,252; Debs, 46,776. 


2 Lueder was a Protestant of German extraction who lived on the North 
Side and associated with the McCormick-Brundage faction of the Republican 
party. Dever was a Catholic of Irish extraction who originally came from 
the West Side. Raymond Robins, Colonel A. A. Sprague, and other promi- 
nent Republicans campaigned for Dever. | 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 29 


zens in the city were foreign-born women. On the other 
hand, one-third of the registered non-voters interviewed 
were native whites of native parentage, whereas but 
one-fourth of the adult citizens in the city were native 
whites of native parentage. 

The importance of the factor of age was ascertained 
by comparing the ages of non-voters and registered 
voters in selected areas. Table IV, giving the age of 
these individuals classified by sex, color, and nativity, 
shows that there was a slight tendency for men in their 
thirties, and a decided tendency for women past sixty 
years of age to neglect voting. Of the native-born and 
the naturalized adult white citizens of both sexes, non- 
voting was more common among those past forty years 
of age than among those in their twenties and thirties. 
A further analysis of this material would show that this 
tendency was most marked in the older immigrant 
groups, namely, those of English, Irish, German, or 
Scandinavian origin. It is interesting to note that the 
opposite tendency was manifest among the colored non- 
voters, the great bulk of whom were under forty years 
of age, while the registered negroes were evenly divided 
by the forty-year mark. Youthfulness was a factor 
which correlated highly with complete lack of voting 
experience. About twice as many of the habitual male 
non-voters were in their twenties as compared to the 
registered male voters. On the other hand, the age 
distribution of the habitual female non-voters, with the 
exception of the colored, was about the same as that of 
the registered voters. Evidently, old age as well as 
youthfulness was closely related to habitual non-voting 
among the women. 

Much more striking contrasts between the registered 
voters and the non-voters come to light when the factor 
of mobility is considered. ‘Table V shows at once that 


NON-VOTING 


30 


‘UMOTYUN SBA 9FB OIA UI S9SVd U99}INOJ OpNpoul you svop sinsy siyy, |, 
‘UMOUYUN SVM O88 OIA UI Sosvd dUO-A]UIM} OPNOU! jou seop oinsy siyy, § 
‘UMOUYUN SBA OF YOIYA UI Sesvd 9Ag-A}IIY}] OpNpoUl you seop ainsy siqy, f 
*spoutoaid [woIdA} UaAge JO SYOod UOr}eI}sIS91 MOI V}eCT | 

*9SBO YOVI UI Ud Jad QOT jo siseg x 














SLL] StL| 24> | 2b | $9 «6|d€we 6°01 | FL | F'6 | SOL || SOL | SOL || GOL | $6 |°°°'****10A0 pue C9 
9°8I | 3°06 | 4°9 | BFL | SOL | 8 OST 1-8 ST 129° St 126 CE-8 SL as le 2 oO LS SC eee 
613 | 9° | 1°08 | 9°83 | L’LL | 9°S1 || SIS | S°6L | 9°08 | OLS || FSS | VSL || O'1S | FOS | °° 6-OF 
3°9% | 3°93 | bss | 4:08 | 8°08 | 8°6S || $'6S | $'6S | 9°63 | B'24B || 4:08 | 4°95 || FOS) 6 LSB] "55" "60g 
OL | 8ST | 1'S8 | 8°13 | O'$s | 8'OF || 0°SS | 0'0E | 6°93 | 9°48 || F'1S | 9'SS || 9°93 | FBS | °° EB-TS 
0'OOL |0'O00L 10° OOL |0'O0L |0'OOL |0°OOL |/0'°00L |0°O00L 10° O0L J0°OOL {0° OOL |O'OOT ||0'OOT |0°OOT |* °° * °° *}U90 A9g 
LLO‘T |L18‘3 | OSs | sob (SFe‘s jose‘s ||009‘S l9FS‘T lez9‘L |SsIs‘s |i¢er’s l0s8‘T ||9La‘¢ |6gL‘¢ | °,tequinu [eo], 
rah bo 2, =e] 7 =~] Zi =e] Z =e) © jan] lee] ae) 
5 8, 8 2, § 8, g a, 8 a3, g & |/OS me) 9, 
< & < a < & < & < = Z. fe iis Sees oee 
= g g g g & 2 e 2 g S S |g. = = 
E a 4 5 g a g a fc cs E. o He sp | & 
= 5 = S 5 oe = 5 sdnouy ADV 
a a a a a POMOIAIOJUT S190 A -WON a 
NUOG-NOSITUOY ound NV GALIBMA TAILVN GIVNG GIVI TIVLOT, 








NOILNGIYLSIG] INA) UA :svauy 


GaLOGIAG NI ALIAILVN GNV ‘HOIOD ‘XAG GgIdWINGag JO SUMLOA-NON GNV SUALOA GHUALSIONY Ao AY 


AI aTave 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 31 


the non-voters were much newer to the city than were 
the registered voters, one-half of the former as compared — 
with one-third of the latter having been in the city for 
less than twenty years. This difference between the 
registered voters and the non-voters was greatest among 


TABLE V 


TeRM OF RESIDENCE IN Cook County or REGISTERED VOTERS 
AND Non-VoTerRS OF SPECIFIED CoLoR AND NATIVITY 
IN SELECTED AREAS: PER CrEnT DISTRIBUTION 


Tor NATIVE Roam 

ieee WHITE NEGRO Hoan 
Non-Voters 

TreRM OF Interviewed 

RESIDENCE 


; Non- : Non- : Non- 
tn County | Regis- ~|Voters t a Voters ae ree 

- nter- nter- 
IH abit-| Occa- Voters viewed Voters viewed Voters viewed 


ual | sional 





Voters 


Total no. *. .|5,159/5 ,310)i1 ,841|3 , 469/12, 520/2 962] 422 | 350 |2,217|1,998 
Per cent. . ./100.0/100 . 01/100 . 0/100 . 0/|100 . 0/100 .0/100 .0}100 .0;100 .0/100.0 


Under 10 

years....| 12.6} 32.7]| 40.3) 28.7], 9.9) 32.5] 50.3) 78.5) 8.6} 25.0 
10-19..... 19.3] 16.3) 15.9) 16.5] 9.0] 8.6] 22.7) 12.9) 30.4) 28.3 
20-29..... 31.2] 20.5]| 20.8] 20.3] 40.5) 26.2) 15.4) 5.3] 23.7) 14.6 
30-39..... 24.5) 18.3]| 14.2} 20.5] 25.8) 19.5| 8.5] 2.8) 26.0} 19.3 
40-49..... 9.1} 8.2] 5.8) 9.4)| 10.2) 8.2) 2.4 0.4) 9.2) 9.5 
50-59; .... Peele es Os DI Oe eea theo usa 1 Ob cee 
60-69..... Meee OEOT rope Re Ola ba lows oa 0.1) 0.5 
70 and over.| 0.1] 0.2) 0.2) O.@/|..... OFS hy Or2’is (OL bp COPE Grr 


* Basis of 100 per cent in each case. 


the native whites of native parentage, the English- 
speaking naturalized foreigners, the naturalized Italians, 
and the negroes. One-third of the naturalized Irish 
non-voters and two-fifths of the naturalized Italian 
non-voters had lived in the city for less than ten years. 
While most of the habitual non-voters were new resi- 
dents of the city, it is of importance to note that 47 per 
cent of the adult white citizens interviewed who had 


39 - _ NON-VOTING 


never voted had lived in the city for more than twenty 
years. On the other hand, 86 per cent of the habitual 
colored non-voters had lived in the city for less than 
ten years. These were the recent migrants from the 
South who had never been allowed to vote in their old 
home communities and many of whom had not been in 
the state long enough to fulfil the residence qualifica- 
tions for voting. Briefly, this table indicates that a 
short term of residence in the city kept many people 
from voting. On the other hand, it does not follow 
necessarily that a long term of residence correlates 
closely with voting, for about: the same proportion of 
voters and non-voters had lived in the city for forty 
years or more. 

It has been pointed out above that the concrete 
situations which resulted in non-voting were studied by 
interviewing 6,000 non-voters. The reasons for not 
voting that were obtained in this fashion were the 
reflections which the individual non-voters or their 
intimate associates were willing to put in verbal form 
regarding the situation which stimulated their non- 
action. While it is true that few people can describe 
accurately their own motives and actions, the “‘reasons”’ 
given in each case may be regarded as fairly reliable in- 
asmuch as they were characteristic of certain social 
situations. On the schedules used for interviewing 
non-voters, there were twenty reasons for not voting 
which appear in all the subsequent tables. Some of the 
investigators tried to select the most important reasons 
as they went along, but others put down all the reasons 
that they regarded as operative in a given case. On 
one-fourth of the schedules, secondary or minor reasons 
were mentioned in addition to the principal reason.! 


1'Table XX in Appendix A shows the combinations of reasons for not 
voting that were given by this portion of the non-voters interviewed. 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 33 


In all, there were found to be over 150 separate com- 
binations of the different reasons given why people do 
not vote. As might be expected, some of these com- 
binations appeared much more frequently than others. 
The most popular combinations were between general 
indifference and ignorance or timidity regarding elec- 
tions, and between general indifference and disbelief in 
woman's voting, both of which occurred more than 
two hundred times. Next came the following combina- 
tions: general indifference and disgust with politics, 
general indifference and neglect, general indifference and 
insufficient legal residence, general indifference and ill- 
ness, and neglect and fear of loss of business or wages. 
Each one of these combinations explained the electoral 
delinquencies of sixty to a hundred adult citizens inter- 
viewed. ‘There were five reasons which were just about 
as likely to occur in combination with some other 
factor as by themselves. ‘These reasons were: general 
indifference, ignorance or timidity regarding elections, 
neglect, disbelief in woman’s voting, and disgust with 
politics. On some of the schedules there appeared as 
many as three or four different reasons.! Thus, there 
were many reports on which neglect, fear of loss of 
business or wages, and congestion at the polls were 
checked. These reports were typical of many that were 
obtained in working-class districts where the men voted 
early in the morning in order to avoid losing any of 
their working time. An analysis of the different factors 
which combined to keep certain persons away from the 
polls on election day shows clearly the complexity of 
the problem attacked in this study. 

It is obvious that it would be very difficult to make 
cross-tabulations on the basis of the many different 
explanations of non-voting described above. In order 


1 For a full statement of all the combinations see Appendix A. 


34 NON-VOTING 


to obtain a simple and convenient classification of the 
many reasons for not voting given by the non-voters, 
the interviewers went over each one of the individual 
schedules, and selected what they regarded as the most 


TABLE VI 


Reasons For Not Votine Given By Non-Voters INTERVIEWED 


Per Cent 


Reasons for Not Voting Number Distribution 
All reasons. 2) 2 eivel pees ce cree HEN To eam 5,310 100.0 
Physical difficulties: 
UTE ROP EOL Ss og GO TM Hk ra Oay Ia Iga eRe 647 12.1 
ADSONCE Ds ctu Mee Gara b oe Ayia gene Megs mac ira 589 Lit 
Detained by helpless member of family......... 115 2.2 
Legal and administrative obstacles: 
Insufficient legal residence. ..............0.04- Q74 5.2 
Fear of loss of business or wages............... 289 5.5 
Coiigestion at, polls) ec i wk. lie ini oie mea 44 0.8 
Poor location of polling’ booth 7.0.5 .54 45040. ee 45 0.8 
Fear‘ ofdisclosure of lage; 2). 0 pate 14 0.3 
Disbelief in voting: 
Disbelief in woman’s voting................0-. 414 7.8 
Objections: of husband. is,’ Lyrae ea eee 54 1.0 
Disgust with politios sos (6:1. ui euleae aaa ee eee ee 230 4.3 
Disgust ‘with own’ party.) Sain ee Bee ae 105 2.0 
Belief that one vote counts for nothing ........ 79 1.5 
Belief that ballot box is corrupted............. 40 0.7 
Disbelief in all political action................. 22 0.4 
Inertia: 
General indifference yk SEs ak ae eee 1,347 25 .4 
Indifference to particular election.............. 129 2.5 
Neglect: intended to vote but failed........... 448 8.4 
Ignorance or timidity regarding elections....... 378 Ae 
Failure’ of ‘party: workers.) ))\\0).).\ase ick ee ee 47 0.9 


important factor in each case.! Inasmuch as three- 
fourths of the reports on the individual non-voters con- 
tained but a single causal explanation, it cannot be said 
that this procedure did great violence to the data. 
Table VI shows the results of this step and also the 
number of non-voters giving each of the various reasons 


1'This was done when the original schedules were being coded for the 
Hollerith punch-card operators. 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 35 


after a correction was made for the superabundance of 
colored non-voters interviewed. A_ glance at the 
reasons given by the colored non-voters shows how 
necessary it was to make this correction.!. The reasons 
for not voting instanced the greatest number of times 
by the adult negroes were insufficient legal residence and 
disgust with own .party. Since the overwhelming 
importance given to these reasons by the negroes was 
peculiar to the time-and-place situation, only a portion 
of colored non-voters was used in each of the general 
tables. This reduction was made on the basis of a very 
careful community study made as to the amount of 
non-voting among the negroes in the particular election 
under discussion.2 The new total of 5,310, which 
appears on all the tables, contains only 31 per cent of 
the colored non-voters interviewed. 

The quantitative importance of the different reasons 
for not voting may now be considered on the basis of 
this corrected sample. For purposes of convenience, 
the reasons may be divided into three groups: the very 
common reasons, the common reasons, and the minor 

1See Table VIII, p. 40. 


2 The number of colored non-voters to discard was determined as follows: 
The average annual increase of the negro population in Chicago for the decade 
1910-20 was something over 10,000. The negro population of the city in 
1923 was probably at least 150,000 (110,000 in 1920). In a solid colored 
precinct with a total population of 1,400 people, a thorough canvass revealed 
the presence of 463 adult non-voters. Assuming that this precinct was 
typical of the solid colored districts, it can be said that the ratio of adult 
colored non-voters to the total colored population in the city in April, 1923, ° 
was 1 to 3. One-third of the estimated colored population in the city at 
the time of the election is 50,000. This number is 6.7 per cent of 740,000, 
the estimated number of adult non-voters at the election. The number 
given above, 5,310, represents the total number of adult white non-voters 
interviewed, plus 350, this number being 6.6 per cent of 5,310. Since 350 
is $1 per cent of 1,138, the total number of adult colored non-voters inter- 
viewed, 69 per cent of the adult colored non-voters interviewed were not 
used in the corrected tables. For another approach to this problem, see 
Table I, pp. 6-7. 


A aaa 


36 NON-VOTING 


reasons. The very common reasons are defined as 
those that were instanced by at least 7 per cent of the 
non-voters. The following reasons fulfil this definition: 
general indifference, illness, absence, neglect, disbelief 
in woman’s voting, and ignorance or timidity regarding 
elections. In general, ‘the estimates based upon the 
replies of the party experts support this grouping.! 
General indifference was mentioned by more than a 
third of the non-voters interviewed as the reason or one 
of the reasons for not voting, but it was regarded as 
the most important reason in only one-fourth of the 
cases. ‘The common reasons were those each of which 
was given by approximately 5 per cent of the non- 


, voters.\ The reasons in this group—fear of loss of 


business or wages, disgust with politics, and insufficient 
legal residence—were also ranked high by the party 
experts. The remaining, or minor, reasons have the 
following rank order, beginning with the most impor- 
tant: indifference to particular election, detained by 
helpless member of family, disgust with own party, 


belief that one vote counts for nothing, objections of 


husband, failure of party workers, poor location of 
polling booth, congestion at the polls, belief that the 
ballot box is corrupted, disbelief in all political action, 
and fear of disclosure of age. It is significant to note 
that the estimates of the party experts and the results 
obtained by the interview method were in substantial 


agreement as to the general relative importance of the _ 


different reasons for not voting. 

In an earlier portion of this chapter, the general 
importance of the factor of sex as a cause of non-voting 
was discussed. Table VII, showing the reasons for 
not voting given by the male and female non-voters 


1 An examination of the questionnaires showed that these reasons were 
marked as most common by the great majority of the party experts. 


~ 
a of aw ae 


is 





ee. 


ae tS 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 37 


TABLE VII 
Reasons ror Nor Vorine Given spy Non-Voters OF SPECIFIED SEx, 
REGISTRATION STATUS, AND VOTING EXPERIENCE: PER CENT DISTRIBUTION 


S REGISTRATION Vv E 
Sex Sratus OTING EXPERIENCE 


Reasons For Not VortiIneG Voted | Voted 








q Fe- || Regis-| Not N 
& || Male | male |] tered |Reais-|) Chi. | Else- | Voted 
& cago 
All reasons: 
Number*........... 5 ,310||1 , 681/3 ,629]|1 ,919|3 , 369||3 045] 385 |1,841 
Per COUtren ses. 100 .0}/100 .0/100 .0||100 .0/100 .0}|100 .0}100.0/100.0 
Physical difficulties: ane 
IAP M ree 2. sa’, 5's 12.1); 8.6] 18.8}} 19.9) 7.7|| 17.4) 7.8) 4.6 
Absence ........... AL SL 7h G2 19S) 6 2h) 16.0) Eee 4 


Detained by helpless 


member of family..| 2.2|| 0.7| 2.8]; 3.2} 1.6]| 2.9} 0.3} 1.4 
Legal and administrative 
obstacles: 
Insufficient legal resi- 
re 2 es as! 6.21148 6leSscol) 0:8) re. 6 «2.6 26 2h art 
Fear of loss of busi- 
ness or wages..... 5.5}; 12.9) 2.0] 10.0; 2@.9]| 7.8) 4.4) 1.8 
Congestionatthepolls} 0.8)| 1.5} 0.5]) 1.5] 0.5]} 1.3] 0.5} 0.2 
Poor location of poll- ; 
me booth ss)... . OrSih el. OL Oo CECE Ola - LS 1y Ose) Ose 
Fear of disclosure of 
oi, bale 0.3|| 0.1] 0.3]] 0.1] 0.3]| 0.9]..... 0.3 
Disbelief in voting: 
Disbelief in woman’s 
EIEN cs ss ss TON ces LDA TL .GpaTL Sil) 2S 2b e 2 Sr iees 
Objectionsofhusband| 1.0]|..... eho Os 1), 1 126l)-5 Ossie: 2.6 
Belief that one vote 
counts for nothing LES NO IV SP AWS PE SH AP leh tS aS 
Disgust with politics | 4.3]| 5.1) 4.0]} 3.4) 4.9]| 4.9] 4.2) 3.5 
Sty with own 
Metetek A se ste 2 SON Soll (kA 44h 0.6 BS. Liet SiG eee, 
Balt that ballot box 
is corrupted...... OC.Teb ie Ob OTP OL 7: O18 A IGiees 
Disbelief in all politi- 
cal action........ 0.4)| 0.6) 0.4] 0.2) 0.5}) 0.2) 0.3) 0.8 
Inertia: 
General indifference | 25.4|| 14.6] 30.4)| 11.5] 33.4]| 17.0] 16.6] 41.0 
Indifference to par- 
ticular election....| 2.5|| 2.6) 2.4]; 2.8] 2.3); 3.6} 2.9] 0.3 
Neglect: intended to 
vote but failed....| 8.4|| 10.9] 7.3]} 14.5} 5.0}} 11.9} 8 2.8 
Ignorance or timidity 
regarding elections| 7.1|| 4.6) 8.3]| 2.7) 9.6) 4.1] 7.5} 12.0 
Failure of party : 
workers.......... GPO EOE ST. O06 1 OF LO. tron OF6 


* Basis of 100 per cent in each case. 


t Includes twenty-two cases in which no information regarding registration status was 
given and thirty-nine cases in which no information regarding voting experience was given. 


38 NON-VOTING 


interviewed, indicates something about situations stim- 
ulating non-voting which were peculiar to the members 
of each sex. The following reasons were found to be 
more important among the women than among the 
men: general indifference, disbelief in woman’s voting, 
illness, ignorance or timidity regarding elections, and 
home-nursing duties. On the other hand, absence from 
the city, fear of loss of business or wages, and neglect 
were found to be more important factors among the 
male non-voters than among the female non-voters. In 
fact, the chief reason why men do not vote according to 
the results of this study was not general indifference but 
absence from the city. The sex differential is one 
which runs through all the tables showing reasons for 
not voting given by the non-voters of specified 
characteristics. 

Table VII also shows the relation between registra- 
tion status, voting experience, and the different reasons 
for not voting. Over one-half of the cases of irregular 
voting, that is, the cases of registered voters failing to 
vote, were explained by one of the three following 
causes: illness, absence, or neglect. General indiffer- 
ence does not loom up as a factor of prime importance 
in explaining the abstention of the registered citizens. 
On the other hand, general indifference was an impor- 
tant reason why adult citizens did not register.\_A more ~ 
elaborate analysis of this material shows that over 
50 per cent of the non-registered adult female citizens 
interviewed in this study gave, as the cause of their 
civic negligence, indifference, ignorance regarding elec- 
tions, or disbelief in woman’s voting.! | One-half of the 
non-registered adult male citizens explained their failure 

1 For the sake of brevity and to avoid burdening the reader with too 


many tables, the tables showing the reasons for not voting given by the non- 
voters of specified sex and registration status are not published. 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 39 


to take the first step in the voting process because of 
absence from the city, insufficient legal residence, or 
general indifference. Of great significance from the 
standpoint of this study were the reasons given by the 
habitual non-voters. Over one-half of the adult male 
citizens interviewed who had never voted said that they 
were indifferent, lacked the legal residence qualifica- 
tions, or were ignorant regarding elections, while 78.6 
per cent of the adult female citizens who had never 
voted declared that they were indifferent, disbelieved 
in woman’s voting, or were ignorant regarding elections. 
Attention should be called to the important place given 
to general indifference and ignorance regarding elections 
by those who have no voting experience. These two 
clauses alone account for over half of the cases of 
habitual non-voting among the adult female citizens of 
Polish or Italian parentage. 

Table VIII shows that there is close relation between 
color, nativity, and certain of the reasons given for 
not voting. Of all the groups considered, the native- 
white non-voters of native parentage were the most 
likely to give absence from the city and the least likely 
to give general indifference as a reason for not voting. 
One-half of the male and one-third of the female native 
American non-voters interviewed explained their failure 
to go to the polls on the grounds of absence, illness, or 
neglect. In the particular election under discussion, 
insufficient legal residence and disgust with own party 
accounted for the abstention of nearly two-fifths of the 
colored non-voters. The preponderance of these two 
reasons, due largely to the particular election, distorts 
somewhat the relative importance of the remaining 
reasons given by the negroes. In order to put the 
colored non-voters on a comparable basis with the 
whites, an estimated normal distribution of the colored 


40 NON-VOTING 


TABLE VIII 


Reasons ror Not Votina Given By Non-VotTers oF SPECIFIED CoLorR, 
“Nativity, AND ParentaL Nativity: Per Cent DistrispuTion 


NATIVE-Born or NATIVE Or ForrIcn 


Reasons For Nort Votinae Totatt 


White 


All reasons: 





Nomberry eur fccae ueneer 5,310 || 1,323 
Per cent iin g Giicahetiar wes 100.0 ||100.0 
Physical difficulties: ' 
Dinesa We.) c Orcieee os sear 12.1 || 10.9 
Absence. via. ceeckter yD ED | Us ANS 
Detained by helpless mem- 
ber of family. 20. 424.2. 2.2 Ls 
Legal and administrative 
obstacles: 
Insufficient legal residence..| 5.2 6.2 
Fear of loss of business or 
WARES? ur cutis Wa er wieldda leis 5.5 4.7 
Congestion at the polls.....| 0.8 0.5 
Poor location of polling booth} 0.8 0.8 
Fear of disclosure of age....| 0.3 0.1 
Disbelief in voting: A 
Disbelief in woman’s voting | 7.8 7.5 
Objections of husband..... 1.0 0.5 
Belief that one vote counts 
Tor DOING aie aieu el 1.5 1 
Disgust with politics....... 4.3 3.9 
Disgust with own party....| 2.0 0.7 
Belief that ballot box is 
COPrupled aa eder hiss ot OG 0.7 
Disbelief in all political 
BRUTIONs Ge hen ne Ure ale 0.4 0.5 
Inertia: 
General indifference....... 25.4 || 22.6 
Indifference to particular 
election tan scuba Y tails 2.5 3.4 
Neglect: intended to vote 
but failed (haci sires te bee 8.4 7.8 
Ignorance or _ timidity 
regarding elections...... 71 6.1 
Failure of party workers...| 0.9 0.4 


* Basis of 100 per cent in each case. 


PARENTAGE PARENTAGE 
Colored 
we N F Ph 
mate ative | Foreign 
Colored| Normal| White | White 
Distri- 
bution) 


350 | 228 |1,294)1,952 
100.0 |100.0 {100.0 |100.0 
4.8 | 7.5 | 11.7 | 14.4 
4.6) 7.0) 8.3 (eos 
0.5 | 0.9.) 03.15 see 
20.0} 3.9} 3.4] 8.3 
4.7 17.0 | 
2.5 | 3.5 LU ae 
0.8 | 1.8 | O;8 en 
0.8) 0.4 | O. Giles 
4.0 | 6.2 | Tidee sere 
0.7 | 0.9 1 aiee 1.4 
Ind 1.8 | 72-8 oe 
6.0) TiO aioe 
18.05) “O39 1,0:}, 38 
La 1:8} 0 ae 
0.4] 0.4] 0.4) 0.5 
14.7 | 22.7 | 28.2 | 28.1 
3.0] 4.4] 2.0] 1.8 
3.61 5.7 | 10.6) 0 
8.2 | 12.7) VSys ee 
2.0 | 3.1.) O}Ghieee 


t Includes 391 cases in which nativity of parents of non-voter was unknown. 


{The percentage of whites giving insufficient 
own party. 


legal residence and disgust with 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 41 


non-voters according to reasons for not voting was 
worked out. On the basis of this ‘“‘normal distribu- 
tion,’’! it can be said that the colored non-voters were 
the most apt of all the groups discussed to attribute their 
electoral failures to disgust with politics or ignorance 
and timidity regarding elections. The outstanding 
reasons for not voting given by the native whites of 
foreign parentage were general indifference, illness, and 
neglect. Fear of loss of business or wages and disbelief 
in woman’s voting also stood out prominently in this 
group as compared with the other groups. The 
foreign-born white non-voters were more inclined to 
explain their failure to vote on the grounds of illness, 
disbelief in woman’s voting, and ignorance or timidity 
regarding elections than were the native-white non- 
voters of native parentage. The last-mentioned three 
reasons, together with general indifference, explained 
the abstention of nearly three-fourths of the foreign- 
born women interviewed who acquired their American 
citizenship by marriage. 

A detailed analysis of the reasons given by the non- 
voters of foreign parentage (Table IX) gives some idea 
as to why there were so many non-voters of particular 
national origins. It has been indicated above that non- 
voting was relatively very common among the women of 
Slavic or Italian origin. When questioned about their 
failure to register and to vote, the women of these 
nationalities commonly replied that they were indiffer- 
ent, sick at the time of the election, or ignorant regard- 
ing all elections. A fair proportion of them also replied 
that they did not believe in women voting. Among the 
non-voters of Irish or German parentage, the pleas of 
general indifference and ignorance regarding elections 
were heard less frequently and those of illness, absence, 

1 This is given in column 4 of Table VIII. 


*U9AIS J19M Pagloads ssoy} UY} Jaq}0 SolI}UNOD USt9I0} YOY UI Sasvo say-AIJY sopnpouy | "988 YOO Ul JUV Jd QOT Jo siseg y 
$$ eee 











9'T £'S 9°I 6°0 r'0 9°0 $°0 9°0 OL Teter ececerecesces + ssrontom Aqred Jo ame 
o°6 9°8 OTT 1'9 6°6 9 9°S cL 9°L Pa “"BUORI2[9 Suipiesei1 Ayipruary 10 soue10usyT 
9°9 v8 8g ol | 6 6r | 38 69 8°¢ Oia >. "pales Inq 930A 0} pepuszur 2409/99 
9°0 GO +] 24°0 63 9°S SI 9°3 ce 61 ae “WOr}eI9 TENOTIEd 04 sousIIIpuy 
o's | ses | 6:63 | #¢2 | 0°98 | t'9% | 9:68 | L:98 T'S [ects iste tee -gonasamipur peroues) 
/DUsauy 
6°0 c'0 cere v,« 9°0 r'0 0 See be 1'T FO ee aia ee ‘ WOrjIe [eorytjod re ul orpaqsiq 
ol 8°0 POET ie 9°0 9°0 Lt ¢'0 Lt 8°0 osc +++ = paydnaz0o SI xXoq JO]TBq Fey} JoISg 
| CP 9° 63 Ss P'S 6°3 6°S $F Co GhU Seated Aig hues es) V8 Ley S19 00.°6 6-9 "++ *sorod yy ysn3siq7 
61 61 81 rl a | VI 61 i Se 91 fete “surqjou IOJ ta 9}0A UO 7eY} Jorg 
a's a | 60 9°0 9°0 a | 9°0 81 El o Hae ere go 6 ate: elibbian Kena se . ‘*purqsny jo suonoolqg 
Lg 18 6°9 6 3 0'¢ 0°61 TSI Gh 08 be ee : ‘SUIJOA SWeUIOM UT Jorfoqsiq 
iS) :buxyoa ur foyaqsig 
Z. ; atin a eeees aa pa eS 9°0 c'0 2 anata ee 9°0 €°0 SWalla enermire, sVa Ww oeeransl are "+ -a8e Jo amsopstp Jo vag 
= $0 50 1 0% 0 8°0 O'T LT 7 ee ce “+ 7+" qOOG Jo WOL}ROOT 100g 
ey ou 8°0 L'0 6'0 6°0 8°0 ¢'0 9'0 8'0 bleigs6.- Ske vain ta..¢ eee! "*+++**srod ay} 78 UOTysasu07 
> &°9 8°P G25 0'9 @ 8 G'S 6°S T=; 69 Eee pie de eer ag 2, Oe a. Ssoulsngq Jo sso] jo Ivay 
Zz G+T 3 o's os L's C'S e's gg P'S Chacala tare Sey Oe eee, noe ep "* ““g9U9pIsod [B52] qusloyNsuy 
2) /89]9DjSGO adynujsurtmpy pun pobaT 
Z 9°T ¢'0 SL $9 IZ rs 9°3 ee i OU oe ee Ayturey jo ceed BE ssafdjay Aq pourejoq 
I'¢ SF — 8°6 oD, 6° pare 891 OL Rew Asa ene oo ene “aouesqy 
o'er | OFT oot | 6:81 o'6 ¢3l | OL. | 96 os ae per Ko cr 5 evar To ee geUTT 
fer qoashy 
0'001 | 0'001 | o-00t | o-00T | O'00t | O'00t | O'00T | O'o0T I] OcOOT | ge eate a tees a quao s9gq 
GI¢ 6LS ISP OFS CLP $88 908 SLI 908‘§ a le ace 56 Sine eee ale eee 6 6 «ie 8 ee eee eres * , Jaquin 
/SUu0svas 1). P 
SotizUunNo‘) Yeu epeuey 
Ayeqy DARTS puvpog BISssny ‘uapaMsg Aueulsex) pue[eiy pute 
12410 ‘ABMION puelsuy || {ivsoy DNILOA LON YOd SNOSVAY 
Q SHALOA-NON' 40 SINGUVG JO HLNIG AO AULNOOYD 
+ 





NOILAGIUISIG] IND) UT -ADVINTUVG NOIGYOT AO SHALOA-NON A NOAIN) ONILOA LON YOU SNOSVaY 
XI GIAVe 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 43 


and disbelief in woman’s voting more frequently than 
among the newer immigrant groups just discussed. 
The reasons for not voting given by the men of foreign 
parentage were most likely to be neglect or fear of loss of 
business or wages. In fact, among the few male non- 
voters of Polish parentage, fear of loss of business or 
wages stood out as the most important factor. 

The reasons for not voting given by the male and 
female non-voters of specified ages, as is shown in 
Table X, bring out several interesting correspondences. 
While one-half of the male non-voters over forty years 
of age declared they did not vote because they were 
absent, sick, or indifferent, the same proportion of male 
non-voters under forty years of age said that their 
abstention was due to absence, fear of loss of business or 
wages, and neglect. Nearly four-fifths of the women of 
all ages accounted for their failure to vote on the 
ground of indifference, illness, or disbelief in woman’s 
voting, but the last two factors were much more impor- 
tant among the elderly women than among the young 
women. It has been indicated above that non-voting 
was more common among the elderly women than 
among young women. ‘Table X shows that a large 
number of elderly women failed to vote because they 
were sick or unwilling to believe that voting was a 
woman's task. ‘The reasons that were more commonly 
given by the young women than by the old were general 
indifference, neglect, insufficient legal residence, and 
home-nursing duties. 

A partial answer to the query as to why so many of 
the new residents of the city failed to vote is shown in 
Table XI. The new residents! did not vote largely 
because they were indifferent, they lacked the legal 
residence qualifications, or because they felt that they 


1 Those who had been in the city for less than ten years. 


NON-VOTING 


AA. 





‘UMOUYUN SBA 998 YOIYM UI Saseo sAQ-A}IIG} Sepnyouy | 








61 0'T L°0 91 61 ¢°0 v0 60 
62 L’8 Lik o°8 8's 9°¢ 0'P he 
g's | es 9h 68 6°9 ¢°6 8° OL GFT 
06 6°6 6°36 1% 6 T &°& a 03 
Te | 696 | 96 18°68 | 6 SI | OGL rh § gor 
¢°0 60 60 60 an | r 0 9°0 40 
¢°0 ¢°0 6°0 60 $1 Sil 8°0 L0 
an | mak 9'T a Bi GG 6°& 8°& L6G 
8's rg 0's 6S 94 a 1 an oP 
80 9°T 61 pa oS 81 91 cI 
OT eT LT i ae Se Oe Be PRA 
6.S1 6st | 3°6 L'8 soe ns ; iil peer 
"0 69 50 50 es Ces 27, Ay tree 
60 8°0 60 8°0 9°0 ; i E OT UT 
Sager al A | ¢°0 L0 6 1 oT Gal g-T 
¢°0 PG 06 66 6&9 c'6 SLT | 0 FT 
8°0 8°36 1 Oe ¥ 9 3°S PL 9°8 ¢ oI 
OT £6 6 P 8°36 & 1 6°0 9°0 vO 
9°¢ 94 6g TS. ay | 696 | 6 16 | 681 
4L& | 6b | 9G ¢ OL 608 | 60 | 6 PF 8S 
0° OOT | 0° O0L | 0 OOT | O'OOL | 0'OOT | O'OOT | 0'OOT | 0°O00T 
c6S | FES‘T | sg0'T 668 891 OLg 86P 6TT 
Py ee a a ee a eee | ee 
pur 09 69-0F 68-06 63-16 pur 09 69-0F 68-06 66-16 
ole mo y Tr Ww 





SdOINA UVAX-NAY, AM SUALOA-NON JO ADY 


wADdKO 
Gt 


mare M29 DO O HON 0 S&F Figs eo 


Qe 1H25 oO SO © res FNC OS 


rior 


S 
oS 
= 


oo 
len) 


I& 


JIviLoy, 


‘OSB YORI UI 390 Jod OOT Jo sIseg » 





rere ede ewecee es vices Sr99I0M ATIVC JO SINIBT 
“** *suorjoo]e Sutpsresar AjIprIuty 10 soue10UsT 
"rete “parrey yng 940A 0} pepueqzU :409]99N 
srereesess “ores JeMorsed 0} sdueJeTIpuy 


eevee eee 


oeeeeereereer ev ee * Q0UsTEHIput [Biou9+) 


DUYLaUy 


erie enanieicectrenene Wess -donoe [eortjod [[®@ Ut Jorpoqstcy 


oeee eevee eee ees es 


aay wmene. 2s *paqdnaioo SI xoq JOT[eQ ey} Jorpoge 


wee aes o- “Ayaed UMO Y}IAL JSNSSICE 


“sorptod qzIM ysnsstqy 


oe ee Surqyou IOJ SJUNOD 9JOA 9UO }RY} Jolpeg 


"**""SUIJOA S UBUIOM Ul 
:Buajoa 


‘pueqsny jo suoroefqg 


jorpeqsiq, 
ur fayaqsig 


"ss +" ***9¢B JO VINSOpSIP JO Ie9I7 


"*** "700g Surjod Jo uor}e00T I00g 


2 2 a ke orer es. ‘ sjjod oq} ye UWOI}sadu07D 


"**"s98BM JO SSoUISNg JO SSOT Jo IeaT 
** “QoUOpIsod [B89] JUSTOUFNSUT 


[89190890 aarywijsiurupo pun obaT 
Sire ATurey es gas Bee Aq poureyog 


eve eee eee 


oeoe ere eee ee ee eee eee ee eee 


‘ ssoul[] 


ssaynayfip yoorshiy q 


*qyuao Jog 


4 Toquan Ny 


-SUOSDIAL 1] 7 


ONILOA LON WOU SNOSVAY 











NOILOGIULSIG] INAD UAG ‘SANDY AaWIOddS AO SUMLOA-NON HIVWA GNV AIVIAT AM NUAIS ONILOA LON woud SNOSVay 


X ATAVL 


45 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 


‘as¥o TOI Ul yO Jod OOT JO SIseg y 


a 


ooo 
Ooo 


I 
6 


0° 00T 
Il 


IAQ pur 
OL 


See eT T= 9°0 roa | 6°0 L'0 
con b> G.P 9°F 9°9 $°9 16 0's 
o's Gg rh 0's OIL | ¢'°6 oh 
oS L's 13 oS $3 ar oS 
0°06 | 8°96 | 4°85 | 8°96 | 9°93 | TIS | 5° LB 
ata ees Bi Brae 5 o'0 0 FO 
C'S 9°0 6°0 L0 9°0 6°0 9°0 
cae Si wy I ¢°0 9°T OT 61 S'S 
oy L's tL o's Lt 6's $s 
ee te9-0 L0 9'°T cl 0°3 PT 
oS S'T L0 91 a1 6'0 9°0 
0's POL | 06 6'8 6'9 8°9 9°8 
oS eee O $°0 $'0 3°0 10 
abt eee se ee 01 ot eT 50 
oS St ee aI 6°0 9°0 L'0 OT 
o's ST $9 0'9 $8 Ph 63 
amen le oT L'0 6°0 oS L's Silt 
ean Og E'S 0's AG L’3 roa | 
P-Fioaso Sl aieyste- cs Le? OL -1-8SL Pee 
Cste 1S. 36 01 ee Lie | OST cS Sl: 1.023110 6 
0'00L | 0'OOL | 0'O0L | 0'00T | O'OOT | 0'OOT | 0'00T 
OF S91 CSh 6L6 | 980‘LT | S98 | SSZL‘T 


69-09 69-09 6F—-0F 66-06 63-06 6I-OL | OT t9puy) 








SGOIuag AVA A-NAT, AM ALNQOD WOOD NI GONAGISAY AO WATT, 


. 


NHN WHSSCOSO KPHAHNROSO WMNOKRO 


icy) 


canal raze! 


—) 
S 
So 
re 


tesrssessesesssssgrgyiom AVIed JO sIN[leT 

" *Smorpooje Sulpiese1 ApIpruity 10 soueIOUST 

"+++ *paTrey yng 930A 0} pepueyU :4d9[59Ny 

Se oe SORIep Ivjnorjied 0} sdUsIJeyIpuy 

5g ote Sete ean eae ee we QoUdTOYIpUT [BLIU9N) 
DYMIUT 


ew lela’. oe “ene a ‘morjoR eorptjod Il? ul Jorpeqsiq 


i ta “*poydnai09 SI XOq JO][Rq 7eY} Jorpeg 
ain : “Aqaed UMO Y}IM YSNSSICy 
eo; 4. ela! oe 6/0 eee eee ere ‘sorpjod YA qsnssiqy 
"++ *ZuIq}OU IOJ SJUNOD 930A 9UO 4eY} Jol[eg 


oe eee ee eee s-9-0te ls ee ° ‘puvqsny jo suorqoelqg 


oer wue Ce ee 6 ee ene ‘SUTJOA S UBUIOM Ul Jorpeqsiq, 
sbuyoa ur foyagsig 

oe ys 18s es +e «57 O9u JO SINSOosIpO avon 

set cutreleRv s tasel a. q}00q suljjod jo UOI} BOOT 100g 

ie. Te. oe ee eee s]jod oy} 12 UOT}sasu07) 


Trrtsece ss -s9FBM IO SSOUISNG JO SSO] JO Ivaq 


o's: 6S 6s ee" bee wa ‘ goMepIsod [esoy quoloygnsuy 
189]9D]SqQo aaroujsvuriupy pun whaT 

ee: Ayrarey jo Joquioul ssajdjay Aq pourejoq 

Seg aoe ee Ct ae a aouasqy 


des a Ghaee Have ake eee oe ane “+> *SsouTTT 


ssauynoyfip poorshiy J 
i.e eee aes oe eee -quoo Jog 
Pe, tare tas. 5D eo “+25 + Joqumnyy 
:suosvas 





IVLOL 


ONILOA LON Od SNOSVAY 








NOILOGIYISIGG IND) UA :ALNQAOD 
NI GONACISaY JO WUAT, GUIMIONdG JO SUALOA-NON AM NUAID ONILOA LON WOU SNOSVAY 


IX Wav 


46 NON-VOTING 


did not know anything about the local political situa- 
tion. It should be recalled that a large portion of the 
~ non-voters who have lived in the city for less than ten 
years were negroes. The non-voters who had lived in 
the city for more than ten years were more likely to give 
illness, absence, fear of loss of business or wages, and 
disgust with politics as reasons for not voting than were 
those who had been in the city for less than ten years. 
The age factor, of course, had much to do with the 
reasons for not voting given by those who had lived in 
the county and city for more than forty years. Many 
elderly women of foreign nativity were indifferent 
toward elections even though they had been in the city 
for forty years or more. 

The relation between economic status and non- 
voting was shown by an examination of the rents paid 
and the occupations held by the non-voters interviewed. 
Unfortunately there was no information available 
about the occupations and the rental expenses of the 
voters. However, it is significant to note that the 
non-registered adult female citizens were found to be 
much more numerous in the neighborhoods where 
prevailing rents were under $20 a month than in the 
districts in which nearly all the rents were over $50 
a month.! Practically all of the non-voting citizens 
of Irish, Italian, Polish, or Bohemian ancestry were 
found in districts where rents were low. On the other 
hand, the registered native whites of native parentage 
who did not vote were relatively very numerous in 
neighborhoods where rents were high. Table XII is 
designed to show the relation between rent paid and 
the different reasons for not voting. The male non- 
voters in the best? residential sections of the city gave 


1See p. 26. 
* Modal average of rents in 1920 over $80 a month according to the 
telephone survey. See Table XII. 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 


Reasons ror Not Vorine Given By MALE AND FEMALE 


TABLE XII 


Non-VoTERs IN SPECIFIED RENTAL AREAS: 
Per Cent DistrIBurtrIoON 


Reasons FoR Not Vorina 


All reasons: 


bo Vighstt nd 3 i a 
i tel 2 


Physical difficulties: 
Le Te ae 
PR ey hoo oe ees 
Detained by helpless member 
SMDRAIG Beery contin eh iain 24 > 
Legal and administrative 
obstacles: 
Insufficient legal residence. . 
Fear of loss of business or 
(Ee Re eae 
Congestion at the polls. .... 
Poor location of polling booth 
Fear of disclosure of age.... 
Disbelief in voting: 
Disbelief in woman’s voting. 
Objections of husband ...... 
Belief that one vote counts 
USN 
Disgust with politics....... 
Disgust with own party.... 
Belief that ballot box is cor- 
COL, eo ee rr 
Disbelief in all political 
Eph ya Ss a 


Inertia: 


General indifference........ 
Indifference to particular 
BIA Beale ce es ck ote «3 
Neglect: intended to vote 
TL Ae es ne 
Ignorance or timidity regard- 
The ClE(uONS, 4... ss 
Failure of party workers... . 





0. 


* Basis of 100 per cent in each case. 


co Mer ww 


ow 


oF F VW OWE 


CO bat 


> 


Mopau AVERAGE OF RENTS PER 


Under 


$20 


Male 


$20- 


$50 


Monts In 1920 


$50 
and 


Over 


Female 
Under | $20— 
$20 $50 


AT 


$50 


794 


—_ 


330 | 550 |1,908) 676 |1,029 
100 .0)100 .0)100 .0/100.0/100 .0/100.0 


a0 Soha ie) 2.00) 4) Sh. Je: lo) ees 


Ooo 


OP © 


=" 


sees 


o °o 


32 


—_ 
oO 


HO woane 


an ® #oOr 


wo 3 


ie) 


or 


io) 
=) 


j— 
Sw oocooce 


iS) 
jd 


9 > 09 O 


CO 
QO cov 24 


oS 


on K=) 2 
~1 D> oS rt =) Sy) 


oO 
"| 


t© 
Or 


i=) oS =e © oo ooor 
o>) oro © CO ~% He ~2 2 


on ~ = 
wn ro A) rr 


— 


{ Includes twenty-three cases in which no information regarding rent paid was given. 


48 NON-VOTING 


three principal reasons for not voting: absence, general 
indifference, and illness. To understand the reasons 
for the abstention of a like proportion of male non- 
voters in the poorest! neighborhoods, fear of loss -of 
business or wages was also necessary. Absence was 
about five times as important a factor among the 
former as among the latter group of non-voters. The 
female non-voters living in dwellings at the two rental 
extremes likewise gave widely divergent reasons for 
not voting. One-half of the female non-voters in the 
best residential areas declared that their failure to 
vote was due to absence, indifference, or insufficient 
legal residence, while one-half of the female non-voters 
who lived in the poorest districts said that they did not 
vote because of indifference, ignorance, or objections 
of husband. 

Occupation was the second criterion of economic 
status used in this study. Of the various occupations 
listed in Table XIII, housekeeping was one which 
appeared to have a definite relation to non-voting. 
The woman who spent most of her time doing house- 
work was very likely to be a stay-at-home on election 
day. It may be that the great number of non-voting 
housewives obtained in this study resulted from the 
way in which the interviewers did their work. |On the 
other hand, the sex classification given above shows that 
the number of female non-voters was not dispropor- 
tionate. The other occupations which seem to corre- 
late closely with non-voting were salesmanship, small 
retailing, and railroading. Table XIII shows the 
reasons which were most commonly given by persons 
engaged in the specified occupations. General indiffer- 
ence and absence accounts for nearly two-thirds of the 
cases of non-voting found among the business men and 

1 Modal average of rents in 1920 less than $10 a month. 


49 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 


*UMOUZUN SCM TONVdNdI0 YOIYA UI Sasvo 901q}-A}10J Sopnyouy | "asBo Youve UI Jad Jad OOT Jo siseg » 











6'0 Tay c'O0 6°0 L 0 3% . 16-6 c'0 rhe kane te 6'0 pees rene Re aaa > ba Ayred jo oinqprey 
$6 |¢8 |Ls |OL |BL [Pb BS |L6 CF 6 F (6S ILL |°°°°°* saorosje Surpaesor Ayrpruny Jo souvs0UsT 
ent 8 ie GL 16 2a 1g-L te 210 6. 18 SL 01 EP 8 tS "* poyrey IN 930A 0} popuezUt :4oo]daN 
gt itz ise leew les los let leo las lee leg lew [occ UOIo]a 4S¥] 0} doUaIOyIpUT 
95061645 16 96 |0°-66.\) FI 1 PL 88 i691 j9 OL |o LE 9ST Pes jo a eee Ue iE et eo 
Dysauy 
6'0 $°0 c'0 Se ae $'T BS: a1 ae 60 c'0 oacee @ 0 me eye « soressss ss “Tore peorrod [TB Ur Jorjeqstq 
eaten ers c'0 c'0 FO 6°1 rT reas Seat oa | 9°T aes L'°0 irae. ees Oagedie: + SUiKene se poydnai09 SI xoq yoryeq yey} ppg 
6'0 rot zy U's L'0 LT acl Qe 9°L ST re 0'% a ayes’ «Tonks eta katiene iene tel swale te Ayred UMO Y}IM YsNSstqq 
Peemnlaran\f. Vo\9 9-192). 10. 9~ (20 198-6 98 1h 9 16'S 18 eee eae eee "7+ sorprjod yy ysnsstc] 
Getcey. - 19. [= S116 1. 16 6 16 F848. IVs eli Gobet a ee “sayy ou IO} S}UNOD 930A 9UO }eY} Joe” 
c’0 eet ee eels | ee 0, 6 eulnis 6 oh force ite: 61 ge Ve, 0y.0 sete i cece. os O'L © p Tene, eae nbole Yee elie. (ener erie eite:  iguw e/a puvqsny jo suonoelqg 
4S |O6L 99 |9'E |E'T 1S 6-19 S$ 19 LT [2-0 “HB A pst FOO S UBUIOA UT JorToqstqy 
:Buryoa ur faragsig 
c'0 g'0 secaters | aea-s ote L'0 - - : le (eet ead g°0 F ac ete "rut rts ****9Be Jo omsopostp Jo 1eaq 
Sao L'3 g'T L°0 soy .cieiee . ‘16'0 El 6°0 eT 8°0 7 SaaS a rece ele a Snes ‘q00q Surjod jo uorzeo0] 100g 
sc Pete | c'0 L'@ L'0 <6 as 18°C LS [Pa G2t 8'0 PR a er) Pee pice) Sebo. OVer ine hgty ero sjjod ye uonsasu0g 
60 |80 |T4L |f'8 |8 4 |¢'SL [88 |F'L8 |O'ST |L'ST js2 jig¢ sake “Fs + <= +S poSlea 0 SNOTTENG, 40 BBO] JO Tea 
Cre viS 6.8.17 S69 76 4. 18'S 16.9 19 FL jh oe 658 “16°9. =e" iT eon ee eouapisad [Bsa] JUS!OUNsUT 
[89]9D}SGO aaynujsvurupy pun pobaT 
$3 ae RHE FO L'0 © Ouaae © 8 sme 8'T 9'0 SA L'0 om "setts * APOTBT Jo Joquisul sso] djoy Aq poureyoq 
oot Ise |g leet locos Ieee lone lett leo Iter leon cat cc aouasqy 
ues isttioo ler Ion los let los leo loz leg ltatlo: Soe ee es eee eee - + *ssounT 
ssaunoypip poorshy q 
0° 00T/0  OOT/O OOT/O OOT/O OOT/O OOT)O OOT)O OOT/O OOT/O OOT|\O OOT||O'OOT)"* TTT qued tag 
61S |S60°S| SST | 8s | SST | 68 | O8 | SIL | SF | OLE | FET |lOTS‘s| gE tg *,TOQuun NY 
isuospad 
go) F | af] | ak | of |e? oll | 8 lech 
BO] @ | 58 | ee| oe | 22 | Fs |Fe=| £6 | FE |FPS |lsmoy BUNOA ION 10J suosHaY 
g a n 2p a 5 be) ua wa 








NOILNGINISI(] INAQ UFG :SNOMVdO00Q GAIWIOGdG JO SUMLOA-NON Ad NUAID ONILOA LON YOd SNOSVAY 
WIX WIdVL 


50 NON-VOTING 


the traveling salesmen and for about one-half of the 
electoral delinquencies of the transport workers and 
the professional men. The persons engaged in the 
other occupations mentioned assigned much less impor- 
tance to absence as a reason for not voting and relatively 
more to general indifference. Many of the non-voting 
clerical workers said that they were neglectful. Many 
small shopkeepers and workingmen did not vote 
because they were afraid of loss of business or wages. 
Many unskilled workingmen lacked the legal qualifica- 
tions for voting, and many of the non-voting domestic 
servants disbelieved in woman’s voting. The non- 
voting housewives explained their failure to vote largely 
on the grounds of illness, general indifference, disbelief 
in woman’s voting, or ignorance or timidity regarding 
elections. 
The purpose of this chapter has been to point out 
the importance of certain social factors as causes of 
non-voting and to show the relation of these factors to 
the different reasons for not voting given by the 5,000 
non-voters interviewed. It has been shown that: sex 
and registration status have much to do with whether 
an adult citizen votes or not. In the particular election 
under discussion over one-half of the non-voters were 
women who were not registered. The mode in which 
citizenship is acquired also has something to do with 
the amount of interest shown in elections. A large 
proportion of the women of Slavic or Italian origin who 
acquired their citizenship by marriage took no interest 
in registration or voting. The possible comparisons 
that could be made between selected groups of registered 
voters and non-voters demonstrated that youthfulness, 
old age, and newness to the city correlated highly with 
non-voting. The analysis of the economic status of 
the non-voters interviewed brought to light the fact 


ANALYSIS OF CAUSES 51 


that a large proportion of the irregular voters of both 
sexes were well-to-do, while the greater portion of the 
habitual non-voters were women in poor circumstances. 
Finally, the analysis of the non-voters interviewed 
according to the reasons given for not voting made it 
clear that there were certain stimulating situations 
which resulted in failure of certain kinds of people to 
vote. In other words, there was a distinct relation 
between the reasons given and such factors as sex, 
registration status, nationality, age, term of residence 
in the city, and economic status. As these factors were 
varied the relative importance of the different reasons 
also changed. In the following chapters a detailed 
analysis of the non-voters and the stimulating situations 
will be given. 


CHAPTER III 
PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 


A detailed analysis of the twenty reasons given for 
not voting and an examination of some of the indi- 
viduals that gave them may profitably begin with a 
discussion of the basis of the general groupings made. 
It is probable that some of the reasons for not voting 
given by the persons interviewed were excuses and not 
genuine explanations. However, the type of reply 
given has been checked against such factors as sex, 
nationality, economic status, and voting experience. 
In this way, its plausibility has been tested to some 
extent by objective criteria. At least it can be said 
that persons of such and such a position in the com- 
munity gave certain specified verbal reactions to ques- 
tions regarding their abstention from the polls. For 
purposes of convenience in handling the material, the 
twenty reasons for not voting have been classified under 
five different headings. While the reasons put under 
each heading form a more or less coherent group, no 
attempt has been made to set up a rigid classifica- 
tion. The interrelation between the different factors 
discussed is too complex for any such simple pro- 
cedure. 

The term, “physical difficulties,’ describes in a 
general way the first group of causes. If a person is 
seriously ill or is detained at home by a helpless member 
of the family, voting is made extremely difficult, and — 
in some cases, impossible. Absence from the city also 
makes voting difficult, as the Absent Electors’ Law of 
Illinois is very cumbersome. 


52 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 53 


Below is a table showing the total number of non- 
voters who gave some physical difficulty as the most 
important reason why they did not vote. 


TABLE XIV 
Per Cent of 
Reasons for Not Voting Number N omit bee 
Interviewed 
Total giving physical difficulties | 1,351 25 .4 
TL) Oy Al dels a 647 12.1 
OTN NAGE a ON ga 589 11.1 
Detained by helpless member of 
CNT RAE Ss Go ie Bee aa 115 2.2 


The City Election Act of Illinois provides that legal 
voters who expect to be away or sick at the time of 
registration may make application in person or through 
another to be registered at the central office of the 
Board of Election Commissioners. If the application 
is not made in person it must be sworn to before a clerk 
of court of record and delivered under seal. The 
provisions of this law are such that few absent or sick 
legal voters profit by them. If absence or sickness 
prevents a person from registering in his voting pre- 
cinct, such a person is not likely to appear in person 
before the Board of Election Commissioners, nor is 
such a person likely to be able to hunt up a clerk of a 
court of record. At any rate, little use has been made 
of the law in Chicago. None of the absent or sick 
non-registered electors interviewed in this investiga- 
tion knew of the existence of these provisions. 


ILLNESS 


Many of the persons interrogated about their non- 
voting had given no thought to the matter. It is 
likely that some of them hunted around for the most 


a4 NON-VOTING 


plausible answer they could think of which would 
satisfy the investigator and speed him on his way. 
Whatever the actual situation was, illness figured in a 
large proportion of the replies received by the field 
workers. The precinct committeemen and the persons 
prominent in the political life of the city also regarded 
illness as an important cause of non-voting. 

In one-eighth of the 5,000 cases obtained in this 
study of non-voting, illness was given as one of the 
explanations of the abstention. That the illness in all 
of these cases was not genuine might be inferred from 
the fact that in 166 instances it was combined with some 
other reason. When non-voters said that they were 
both sick and indifferent, it is almost impossible to 
determine which was the most important factor. If 
they had not been sick it is still possible they might 
have been indifferent toward the election. The same 
can be said regarding those cases in which illness was 
associated with neglect or ignorance or with one of the 
disbeliefs in voting. In preparing the material for 
detailed statistical analysis, 647 cases were selected in 
which illness was deemed to be the most important 
factor. In other words, it was found that 1 out of every 
8 non-voters interviewed gave sickness as the most 
important factor explaining his or her abstention. 

The great bulk of the non-voters who complained 
about sickness on election day were women. Most of 
these women were registered, and felt it their duty to 
vote in such an important election as the mayoralty 
election, unless hindered from doing so by some physical 
difficulty. One out of every 7 of the registered women 
who did not vote stayed at home on account of illness. 
Of the women who had never voted only 1 in 24 was 
sick on election day. It is interesting to note that a 
much smaller ratio of males were sick at the time of 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 55 


the mayoralty election than of the females, if the 
results of the canvass can be accepted as substantially 
correct. The explanation of the sex difference is given 
in some of the individual cases cited below. 

A further analysis of the importance of illness as a 
cause of non-voting shows that it figured largely among 
the women of Irish, Polish, Russian, or Bohemian 
ancestry. With the one exception of the Irish, the 
female citizens of the older immigration were less likely 
to claim that they were indisposed on election day than 
were the citizens of the newer immigration. Among 
some of the nationalistic groups studied, illness was 
nearly as important a factor among the men as it was 
among the women. Every eighth German non-voter 
interviewed, whether man or woman, was professedly 
in poor health on election day. High proportions of 
the Italian, the Polish, and the Irish male non-voters 
were also physically indisposed at this time. The sani- 
tary conditions of the home and the workshop probably 
have something to do with these cases. Only 6 per 
cent of the male non-voters of native parentage com- 
plained of illness on election day. The ratio of illness 
among the foreign-born non-voters was much higher 
than that among the native-born non-voters. 

The high ratio of sick non-voters is made to appear 
more plausible when the factor of age is taken into 
consideration. A large percentage of the sick non- 
voters were well advanced in years. ‘These elderly 
citizens were very easy to find because most of them 
were permanent stay-at-homes. Forty out of 144 sick 
male non-voters were over sixty years of age, and 94 
out of 502 sick female non-voters were over sixty years 
of age. The percentage of non-voters who gave illness 
as the cause of their abstention gradually increased 
as the older age groups were reached. Beginning at 


56 NON-VOTING 


4 per cent of the men and 10 per cent of the women in 
their twenties, it increased gradually until it reached 
30 per cent of the males and 24 per cent of the females 
over seventy. 

The ratio of those giving illness as a cause of non- 
voting increased with the length of residence in the 
city. It is not to be supposed from this that general 
health conditions in the city were bad, but rather that 
the persons who had been in the city for fifty years or 
more were prone to various kinds of sickness on account 
of their age. Those persons who had moved into the 
city within the last ten years were in the prime of life, 
and were comparatively immune to illness. Of those 
non-voters who had been in the city for a short time 
only, the Irish, the Polish, and the Russians showed the 
greatest percentage of illness, while the native whites 
and Scandinavians showed the least. ‘The sanitary 
conditions in some of the Irish and Polish precincts 
which were canvassed were bad, and this fact may 
explain in part the high percentage of sick non-voters 
in these groups. 

At first sight the tables showing the economic 
status of the sick non-voters do not bring out such 
striking contrasts as might be expected. The female 
non-voters who lived in neighborhoods where rents were 
over $50 a month were only a little less likely to claim 
that they were indisposed on election day than were 
those living in neighborhoods where rents were under 
$50 a month. ‘The variation in the amount of sickness 
among non-voters according to economic status was 
greater among the men. Only 6 per cent of the male 
non-voters in the best residential areas said that they 
were kept from voting on account of illness, while about 
10 per cent of the male non-voters in the poor sections 
asserted that they were sick on election day. The 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 57 


German and Scandinavian women living in the high- 
class rental areas were much less likely to offer their 
personal ailments as an explanation of their failure to 
vote than were those living in the poor districts. The 
same can be said regarding the colored non-voters. The 
high percentage of illness among the non-voting home- 
owners may indicate that persons who pay taxes excuse 
a failure to vote only on such grounds as illness or 
absence. The variation in the relative amount of 
illness among the stay-at-homes in different neighbor- 
hoods is slight, but it must be remembered that the 
bulk of the non-voters studied in this investigation 
were women living in the poorest sections of ‘the city, 
and that they make up nearly two-thirds of all the sick 
non-voters. 

Enough has already been said about those non-voters 
who gave illness as an explanation of their staying at 
home on election day to indicate that most of them 
were housewives. Nearly every eighth non-voting 
housewife claimed that she was not at the polls on 
election day because she was sick. ‘The proportion of 
illness was even greater among those who had no 
occupation. Every third parent or dependent of the 
head of the family could not vote on election day 
because of physical disabilities. The business men on 
their own time, the traveling salesmen, the clerical 
workers, and the transportation workers were the least 
likely to be non-voters on account of sickness. About 
7 per cent of the non-voting laborers, shopkeepers, 
professional and domestic workers were kept from 
voting on account of illness. It is possible that the 
high ratio of illness among the stay-at-home housewives 
as compared with the ratio of those engaged in gainful 
occupations was the result of the tendency on the part 
of housewives to offer illness as an excuse. However, 


58 NON-VOTING 


it has already been pointed out that many of these 
housewives were old and that most of them were poor. 
The genuineness of the illness can be determined only 
by careful consideration of individual cases. 

The statistical analysis shows that the great major- 
ity of those who were kept at home on election day 
on account of illness were registered, middle-aged, or 
elderly female electors of foreign parentage, having no 
occupation but housework and living in poor sections of 
the city. 

In discussing the various reasons that were found in 
combination with illness, it was pointed out that illness 
was sometimes associated with indifference. It was 
also indicated that a large proportion of the women gave 
this dual explanation for not voting. In all the differ- 
ent residential neighborhoods of the city, women were 
interviewed who declared that they stayed at home 
on election day because they were both sick and 
indifferent. 


Mrs. Sundling,! a young woman living in the Hyde Park district, 
said that she usually voted but was feeling bad last election day 
and although she did not live far from the polls she did not feel 
like going out to vote. The interviewer remarked that this person 
seemed indifferent to the last election although illness was given 
as the cause for her failing to vote. 

In a Dutch settlement on the South Side, an elderly housewife 
did not vote at the mayoralty election, although she had voted in 
the preceding February aldermanic election, because she had a bad 
cold on election day. However, she was up on that day and could 
have gone to vote, had she really wanted to do so. 

In a depreciated residential area back of the Stockyards, a 
Polish woman, aged thirty-six, living in squalid conditions, did not 
register because she was subject to headaches which often kept her 
from going out. She declared that when she was not indisposed on 
account of her headaches her children were ill. 


1The names given in the case studies are typical but not iden- 
tifying. 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 59 


While many of the interviews with non-voters who 
professed sickness on election day were of an unsatis- 
factory nature, the great bulk of them gave evidence 
that their sickness was serious. Some gave an account 
of the specific disease which kept them at home on 
election day. A few examples will illustrate the atti- 
tude of the different kinds of non-voters that were kept 
from the polls on account of some specific disease. 


A young woman in a fine residential district, in spite of her short 
residence in the city, declared that she was greatly interested in 
politics. At the time of the election she was sick with diphtheria 
and was quarantined with some other members of her family. She 
was evidently sorry to have lost her vote. 

Mrs. P, a middle-aged colored woman afflicted with tuberculosis, 
thought she was mortally ill, and declared that she had not been out 
of her house for twelve months. At the time of the election she 
was confined to her bed. 


The most convincing cases of illness discovered in 
this investigation were those in which the persons 
definitely stated that they were confined to bed at the 
time of the election. With these individuals voting 
was practically a physical impossibility under the 
existing voting laws. 


Mr. H, an attorney living on the North Side, usually a regular 
voter, was sick in the hospital at the time of the election. 

Mrs. C, an elderly woman of Irish extraction who kept a lodging- 
house in the Hyde Park district, did not vote because she was sick 
in bed the first week in April. Some very good friends as party 
workers came to take her to the polls for she had hoped to be able 
to get up, but she was absolutely unable to go. She evidently took 
voting seriously, and was quite well acquainted with municipal 
affairs. 

In the Ghetto district a middle-aged Jewish woman voted at 
the primaries but was in the hospital on election day. She said that 
she paid taxes on two buildings and therefore did not miss voting 
except when she was absolutely unable to get out. She regarded 
voting as a desirable protection for all taxpayers. 


60 NON-VOTING 


A middle-aged Bohemian woman who remembered something 
about the voting process in the old country declared that she was 
a regular voter in Chicago elections and voted in the November 
county election of 1922, but on the day of the mayoralty election 
she was sick in bed when the party workers called for her. 

Mr. Salter, a middle-aged brick mason who had done some 
work for the city, would certainly have voted in the mayoralty 
election if he had not been confined to his bed. He represented the 
colored organization of bricklayers at the time of Judge Landis’ 
arbitration, and was an influential man in his local, political, and 
industrial groups. 

Mrs. Bales, an elderly colored laundress who was born in 
Kentucky and came to Chicago in 1890, insisted that she did not 
purposely get sick at the time of the election. She was interested in 
the attitude of the colored people toward the issues of the mayoralty 
election, and was glad to see that the colored people were conquering 
some of their old prejudices. At the primary she had voted for the 
other party candidate, and she would have done the same at the 
election if she had not been confined to her bed. 


It has already been indicated that a large proportion 
of the non-voters who complained of illness were of 
advanced age. According to the 1920 census figures 
there were 46,000 people in Chicago who were over 
seventy years of age. It is probable that at least two- 
thirds of them were citizens.1 


Mrs. W was eighty-two years of age and had been in Chicago 
for forty years. She thought that every citizen should be informed 
on current events and politics and that the people who complained 
about the city administration had no excuse to offer when they 
did not vote. She was a firm believer in women exercising their | 
influence in politics, and for one of her age she was unusually alert 
and informed on politics. Only her feeble health prevented her 
voting. 

A German woman, seventy-nine years of age, declared that she 
had been interested in politics since Lincoln was president. She 
voted in November, 1922, but found it too difficult to vote in the 


1 Fourteenth Census of the United States, II, 291. Three-fourths of the 
persons over seventy years of age were foreign-born. About 55 per cent 
of all the foreign-born were naturalized. 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 61 


mayoralty because she could not walk and was unable to leave 
the house. 

Mr. W, colored, had chronic rheumatism and an occasional 
stroke of paralysis. He was over sixty years of age, and although 
still able to get up and go around he had not voted for four years. 
He had attended only one political meeting in his life, and was 
disgusted at what he saw in this meeting. In view of what he had 
heard about the mayoralty candidates, he did not think it worth 
his while to make the effort to vote. 


Disease and old age were not the only factors which 
resulted in so many stay-at-homes on election day. 
Some citizens were disabled at the time of the mayoralty 
election because of injuries caused by accidents. 


A Russian woman of Jewish extraction was injured in a fall 
from a street car. She was in bed at the time of the election, unable 
to move her right foot. She declared that while only such a situa- 
tion could prevent her from voting, she was disgusted with the city’s 
extravagance. 

Mrs. R, an elderly woman living near a popular boulevard, did 
not vote because she was just recovering from an injury which she 
received when a cab hit her. She said that she had always voted 
and taken a keen interest in politics. 

A middle-aged Irish laborer showed a great deal of interest in 
elections. He did not see much hope in the present methods of 
choosing candidates until people learn to vote intelligently. He 
himself had been a regular voter up until the time he had broken 
his leg, but had not been able to vote since the presidential election 
of 1920. 


One reason for the higher ratio of sickness among the 
female citizens than among the male citizens is the fact 
that at any given time in the year a certain proportion 
of women are confined on account of pregnancy. 
Probably as many as 8,000 women in Chicago can be 
put in this class of non-voters at a given election.! 

A young Polish woman was registered but did not vote because, 
as she said, “‘she was visited by the stork at the time.” 


1 According to the Report of the Department of Health for the City of Chi- 
cago for 1922 there were between 4,000 and 5,000 births each month. 


62 NON-VOTING : 

A young colored woman was not registered and did not think 
of voting in April because she was receiving confinement care at 
that time. She had been in such poor health for some time that 
she felt she was unable to give any thought to such matters as 
elections. 


There was another group of citizens whose functions 
as electors were made very difficult because of some 
physical deformity. The deaf, the blind, the lame, and 
the paralyzed find voting a rather onerous task. 


Mr. A was an inmate of a hospital for incurables. He was 
blind and never voted at primary elections. He did not vote at 
the mayoralty election because he could find out little about the 
candidates, and there was no one to take him out on that day. 

Another blind man who stayed at home said he was disgusted 
with voting because of his physical impediment. He declared that 
he was not going to the polls any more to become a mere tool of 
ward politicians. According to the Illinois Election Law the elec- 
tion officials may go into the voting booth to assist persons who are 
physically incapable of marking the ballot. 

Mrs. G was an elderly woman afflicted with deafness and poor 
eyesight. She often found it very inconvenient to get out to the 
polls especially in bad weather such as that which obtained on the 
day of the mayoralty election. 

Mrs. G was an old resident of the city and her physical defects 
alone kept her from voting regularly. 

Mr. B was a paralytic and so of course could not get out to vote. 
He had two sons who would soon be able to vote, so he did not feel 
the loss of his own vote so keenly. 


In countries having compulsory voting illness is 
looked upon as a legitimate excuse for staying away 
from the polls on election day. A certain proportion 
of those who are confined to their homes on election 
day by sickness might be enabled to vote by a liberal 
mail-ballot law. The persons who gave illness as an 
excuse for not voting at least took their civic negligence 
as something which had to be accounted for in a 
plausible manner. 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 63 


ABSENCE 


Absence as well as illness sometimes makes it highly 
inconvenient or impossible for a legal voter to be at 
the place where he is entitled to vote on election day. 
The legislature of Illinois recognized this fact by passing 
laws in 1917 and 1919 relative to absent voting. Any 
registered voter expecting to be away on the day of 
election may make an affidavit to that effect and apply 
for a ballot within a certain specified time. This 
affidavit must be made and the ballot marked before 
an officer authorized to administer oaths. Such officer, 
of course, must not see or know how the ballot is 
marked. The absent voter must not only make his 
application under oath but he must also cast his ballot 
under oath, and if he receives a ballot and wilfully 
neglects to make use of it he is liable to prosecution. 
Because the provisions of the Absent Electors’ Law 
regarding the secrecy of the ballot can easily be evaded, 
and because of the fact that the law is little known, 
few electors have availed themselves of it. Only 
226 voters made use of it in the election of April 3, 1923. 

The precinct committeemen and the party experts 
both regarded absence as a significant cause for non- 
voting, and, according to the results obtained by the 
interview method, absence ranked third. Absence 
appeared on one-ninth of the schedules filled out for 
the individual non-voters. It was found less fre- 
quently in combination with other factors than was 
illness. About one-third of the 121 complex explana- 
tions in which absence appeared as one of the factors 
also contained general indifference.1 Neglect or fear 
of loss of business and wages made up nearly two- 
thirds of the remaining combinations. As in the case 
of illness, it is difficult to determine whether the removal 

1 Tables XIX and XX, pp. 259-60. 


64 NON-VOTING 


of the physical difficulty under discussion would have 
removed the cause of the abstention. The person 
might still have taken an indifferent attitude toward 
the election. However, the association of absence 
with fear of loss of business or wages is quite reason- 
able, and so is the union of absence and neglect. In 
this study neglect covers the type of citizen who 
intended to vote but failed because of some intervening 
obstacle. 

A statistical analysis of those non-voters who 
explained their abstention on the ground of absence 
reveals at once some of the striking characteristics of 
this type of non-voter. As might be expected, more 
men than women are called out of the city on election 
day. Every fifth male non-voter declared that absence 
from the city accounted for his abstention while only 1 
in every 15 female non-voters gave this explanation. 
It was also more important among those who were 
registered than among those who were not registered. 
Absence was given as the cause of non-voting by every 
fifth person who registered but did not vote. When 
sex and registration status are considered together, 
the piling up of the absentee cases is even more note- 
worthy. ‘Twenty-seven per cent of the male non-voters 
who were registered but did not vote declared that on 
election day they were out of town. Absence was 
given as a cause for not registering by 15 per cent of 
the unregistered men and by 83 per cent of the women 
who were not registered. Nearly all the men who 
failed to register because they were out of town had 
some voting experience. Nevertheless, 8 per cent of 
the habitual male non-voters were in the out-of- 
town-on-election-day group. ‘This makes absence the 
fifth most important cause among the men who have 
never voted. If these proportions can be accepted as 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 65 


typical, it is clear that the Absent Electors’ Law of 
Illinois does not accomplish its purpose. 

Some light upon the representative character of the 
absent non-voters interviewed can be obtained by 
analyzing the table showing their nativity. One-half 
of them were native whites of native parentage. 
Almost every third native white male non-voter of 
native parentage was away from the city at the time of 
the mayoralty election. On the other hand, the non- 
voters of foreign parentage rarely gave absence from 
the city as a reason. Only 1 in 5 of the German or 
Russian male non-voters and only 1 in 10 of the Italian 
male non-voters mentioned absence. ‘The male citizens 
of the newer immigration had evidently not reached 
that economic status which enabled them to move 
freely to other parts of the country. ‘Their business 
and their home ties kept them close to a very restricted 
part of the city. The ratio of absenteeism was like- 
wise much higher among the female non-voters of native 
parentage than among the female non-voters of foreign 
parentage. Fourteen per cent of the non-voting native 
white women of native parentage were out of the city on 
election day, while absenteeism was found among only 
2 per cent of the negligent female electors of Irish, 
German, or Scandinavian extraction. The foreign- 
born women who acquired their citizenship through the 
naturalization of their husbands were little likely to 
be deprived of their vote on account of absence from the 
city. Thus it appears that absence deprived more 
native Americans of native parentage of their vote than 
it did citizens of foreign birth or parentage. 

Most of the absent non-voters, women as well as 
men, were between the ages of thirty and fifty-nine. 
Omitting the very old citizens, absence as a cause of 
non-voting was found to be increasingly more important 


66 NON-VOTING 


as the older age groups were reached. In other words, 
those who traveled for business or pleasure were the 
middle-aged citizens who had established themselves 
economically. The young men and the young women 
who were just starting their careers were not likely to 
be found away from their homes. Among some of 
the foreign groups the opposite tendency was manifest. 
The young men of Polish, Russian, Scandinavian, or 
Bohemian ancestry were more mobile than were the older 
male members of their respective groups. The explana- 
tion of this is that the casual laborers were recruited 
from these groups. With the exception of a small group 
of young Irish women, the elderly non-voting women 
had a higher percentage of absenteeism than did the 
young. These women who were out of the city on 
election day were for the most part native whites of 
native parentage, over forty years of age. 

Table XI, showing the absent non-voters classi- 
fied by term of residence in Cook County, seems to 
indicate that the longer a person stays in the city the 
more apt he is to be out of town on election day. ‘The 
close relation between the age and the term of residence 
of the native whites in Chicago accounts-for the high 
percentage of absenteeism among the old residents. It 
is interesting to note that a low ratio of absenteeism 
was found among those non-voters who had been in the 
city for less than ten years. The greater portion of 
these new residents of the city were colored, native 
white, or German-born. The Germans who had been 
in the city for less than twenty years were more likely to 
be out of the city on election day than were those who 
had been in the city for twenty years or more. How- 
ever, as in the other tables discussed, the native whites 
of native parentage were the controlling group. 
Twenty-three per cent of the old white residents of 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 67 


native parentage were deprived of their vote because 
of absence. 

There is a striking connection between absence as a 
cause of non-voting and the economic status of the 
voter. In the best residential neighborhoods, that is, 
where rents were $80 a month or over, according to the 
telephone survey, one-half of the male non-voters and 
one-quarter of the female non-voters were away on elec- 
tion day. On the other hand, only 10 per cent of the 
male non-voters and less than 2 per cent of the female 
non-voters in the poorest districts! gave absence as a 
cause of their non-voting. The absent male non-voters 
living in the poorest sections of the city were largely 
railroad men. Although the absent non-voters living 
in the districts where the prevailing rents were over 
$50 a month were largely native whites of native par- 
entage, there were some of German, Irish, or English 
parentage. Practically all of the absent female non- 
voters interviewed in this study were found in the well- 
to-do neighborhoods where the native whites of native 
parentage predominated. In fact, every fifth woman of 
native parentage living in neighborhoods where rents 
were over $50 a month was out of the city at the time 
of the mayoralty election. Thus, it can be said that 
a relatively high proportion of the wealthy men and 
women living in houses and fashionable apartments 
were absent non-voters. 

The citizens who lost their vote because election 
day found them many miles from the polling place 
were most likely to be business men on their own time, 
traveling salesmen, transport workers, or professional 
men. Forty-six per cent of the non-voting business 
executives interviewed in this study were out of the 
city on election day. Fifty-seven per cent of the 


1 Prevailing rents under $15 a month. 


68 NON-VOTING 


non-voting traveling salesmen and about one-third of 
the non-voting transport workers and professional men 
explained their abstention on the ground of absence. 
The persons who were least likely to lose their vote on 
account of absence from the city were the housewives. 
Next to them in this respect came the unskilled workers 
and domestic servants. About 15 per cent of the 
skilled workers and clerical workers who failed to vote 
in the last mayoralty election’ accounted for their non- 
voting on the ground of absenteeism. 

The non-voters who gave absence as a reason for 
not voting were largely native white males who were 
registered, middle-aged, well-to-do, and engaged in 
business. Many of the wives of these men were also 
out of the city on election day. 

Most of the absent non-voters interviewed were 
found in the wealthiest part of the Hyde Park neigh- 
borhood and in the heart of the North Side “Gold 
Coast” area. The absent male non-voters found in 
these neighborhoods were almost all middle-aged 
business men on their own time. There were bankers, 
lumber manufacturers, clothing manufacturers, public- 
utilities magnates, railway presidents, furniture manu- 
facturers, real estate dealers, and other business 
executives who failed to vote on April 3, 1923, because 
they were out of town. 

Mr. G was a high official in a local public-utility company. 
He had lived in Chicago for forty years, and was actively interested 
in elections, especially local elections. A trip to California pre- 
vented his voting in the mayoralty election. 

Mr. Y, a middle-aged banker, was a personal friend of Mr. 
Dever, the Democratic candidate for mayor, and gave a statement in 
support of Dever’s candidacy, although he was abroad at the time 
of the election and so was unable to vote. Mr. Y declared that he 


was an active participant in local politics and received a telegram 
from Dever announcing the result of the election when he was on 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 69 


the ship coming home. He was sorry to have lost his vote and was 
evidently an active political worker. 

Mr. U, aged fifty, a prominent real estate dealer, did not vote at 
the mayoralty election because he was out of the city at the time 
of the election. He was one of General Dawes’s minute men, and 
said that he was very much interested in Chicago politics. 


The skilled and unskilled workers were not quite so 
apt to be out of town on election day as were the busi- 
ness men. However, there were some skilled workers © 
whose occupation frequently took them out of the city. 
The transport workers connected with the many rail- 
roads that converge in Chicago are frequently called 
out of the city by their employment. Among the non- 
voting railway employees were locomotive engineers, 
railroad mail clerks, railroad brakemen, railroad fire- 
men, Pullman porters, Pullman dining-car cooks and 
waiters, flagmen, and ordinary section-gang laborers. 
These men were nearly all native whites of native parent- 
age while the unskilled were either Negroes, Poles, or 
Italians. 


A middle-aged machinist of Austrian parentage worked in a 
shop which was some distance out of the city. He was able to 
return to his home only on special occasions. He had tried to come 
to the city to vote but had arrived a few minutes after the polls 
had closed. 

Mr. T, born in Russia, a skilled worker in the men’s ready-made 
clothing industry, was in Kansas City at the time of the election 
trying to organize some of the clothing workers in that city. He was 
registered in a precinct near the center of the Chicago clothing 
industry, and declared that he was greatly interested in politics, 
and only failed to vote when he was out of town. 

Mr. R, a young colored Pullman porter who had lived in Chicago 
for fourteen years, always voted when he could. He was working 
on a nine-hour run to the Pacific Coast at the time of the last 
registration, and consequently was unable to vote in the April 
election. He knew of scores of other Pullman porters who found 
their work made voting almost impossible. 


TO) NON-VOTING 


Mr. N was a young Italian laborer. He was registered to vote 
in the mayoralty election, but he was assigned to a section gang 
which was put on a railroad job in Indiana and so was not able to 
vote. 


The greatest amount of absenteeism was found 
among the traveling salesmen. Chicago is a great 
commercial center and hence is the hub of many 
sales agencies. ‘There were no traveling salesmen inter- 
viewed who indicated that they knew anything about 
the Absent Electors’ Law of Illinois or had made any 
effort to find out whether or not they could vote by mail. 

Mr. C, a salesman thirty-six years of age, living in Hyde Park, 
did not vote because he was absent from the city for the first part 
of the year. He declared that he spent so little time in Chicago that 
he did not take a very active interest in politics. When he was in 
the city he usually voted, but if he was not he did not worry 
much about elections for he was greatly absorbed in his business 
interests. 

Mr. B, forty-three years of age, was “‘on the road”’ at the time 
of the last election, and had not voted since the November election 
of the preceding fall. He declared that he usually voted, but he 
thought that local politics would ruin any honest man running for 
office. He believed that the public wanted the officeholders to have 
their salaries and perhaps enough to make up campaign expenses, 
but no more. Chicago politicians did not know where to stop. 


A comparatively high percentage of those engaged 
in the various professional occupations were out of the 
city on election day. Authors, teachers, musicians, 
architects, lawyers, physicians, and actors declared 
that they did not vote at the mayoralty election because 
they were in other parts of the country at the time. 
Comparatively speaking, there were only a few clerical 
workers in the absentee class. 

Mrs. Y, a middle-aged writer and lecturer, was on a lecture tour 
for the International Harvester Company at the time of the spring 


election of 1923. She claimed to be actively interested in Chicago 
politics. 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 71 


Mr. O, a young attorney, could not vote because he was out 
of the city on business. He declared that he never failed to vote 
when at home, and took a most active interest in every aspect of 
local politics. 

Mr. B, a young accountant working for the Wilson Company, 
was away on a business trip in April, and that reason alone prevented 
his voting. When at home he was regularly a voter at all elections, 
and was interested in the issues. 

Mr. P, a German, who came to this country in 1906 when he 
was twenty years of age, was engaged in clerical work in the city. 
At the time of the mayoralty election he was in California on busi- 
ness, but when in the city he rarely failed to vote, and he believed 
that voting “‘was a good thing.” 


The least amount of absenteeism was found among 
the non-voting housewives. However, a fairly large 
number of the native white women of native parentage 
living in the residential districts were in the absentee 
class. Some of the women in prosperous circumstances 
went on business trips with their husbands. The 
wives of retired business men and of business men who 
were seeking recreation almost invariably accompanied 
their husbands. Some women were out of the city at 
election time visiting relatives in nearby cities. The 
non-voting housewives who accounted for their absten- 
tion on the ground of absence from the city, like most 
of the absent non-voters discussed, declared that they 
regarded voting as a valuable privilege. 


Mrs. Q, a young woman living in a high-class apartment on the 
North Side, was out of the city in April with her husband who was 
a publisher. She was a regular voter and did not wish to be classed 
as a non-voter because of her failure to participate in the mayoralty 
election. 

Mrs. T, a middle-aged housewife living in Chicago most of her 
life, was intensely interested in local affairs but went away at the 
time of the last election with her husband, whose health necessitated 
a trip to the South. She was sorry to have missed voting, and she 
asserted that she seldom failed to vote. 

Mrs. Z, an elderly Jewish lady who was born in Russia, did not 
vote because she went to visit some out-of-town relatives for the 


12 NON-VOTING 


Passover holidays. She usually voted because her son was very 
urgent in the matter. 


A detailed analysis of the absent voters shows them 
to be among the “substantial” citizens of the city. 
Although there is an Absent Electors’ Law in Illinois, 
the nature of its provisions is little known. A campaign 
of education regarding the provisions of this law would 
undoubtedly lessen the number of absent non-voters, 
and a more liberal mail ballot law would go farther in 
the same direction. 


DETAINED BY HELPLESS MEMBER OF FAMILY 


The cases discussed in which illness was a cause of 
non-voting were cases in which the non-voters them- 
selves were sick. ‘There were also many persons who 
did not vote because of illness in the family. Illness 
as a general reason for non-voting might have included 
both of these situations, but it was found desirable to 
create a new classification for those who were detained 
at home on election day by a “helpless member of 
family,” which might be either an infant or an adult 
invalid. The questionnaire which was sent to the 
precinct committeemen did not have on it any causal 
explanation covering this situation, but some of the 
precinct committeemen in their additional remarks 
expressed ideas similar to it. On the other hand, the 
caption, “Home Nursing Duties,’ appeared on the 
questionnaire which was sent to the persons prominent 
in the political life of the city. Eight of the 92 persons 
who replied to this questionnaire regarded this cause as 
of some importance. The interviewers found 119 
actual non-voters who explained their abstention on 
this ground. Of all the causal groups discussed so far, 
home-nursing duties is the most homogeneous and 
clearly defined. There were only 14 out of the total 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 73 


119 cases in which another reason also was given. 
General indifference and ignorance were the only 
causes found in combination with home-nursing duties. 

While a little over 2 per cent of the total number of 
female non-voters were detained by a helpless member 
of the family on election day, the percentage of male 
non-voters in this causal group was so small that it can 
be almost entirely disregarded. The presence of a 
dozen men in the group was due to peculiar factors 
which will be discussed later. One-half of the women 
who were kept at home on election day by some helpless 
member of the family were registered. . In other words, 
home-nursing duties appeared as an important cause 
of non-voting among the women who were registered 
but failed to vote at the mayoralty election. 

The young female non-voters of Jewish, German, 
Irish, or Scandinavian parentage, living in poor cir- 
cumstances, were more likely to be confined to their 
homes on election day by home-nursing duties than 
were the female non-voters of the other nationalistic, 
economic, and age groups considered inthis study. The 
native whites of native parentage and also the colored 
were not likely to be tied down by helpless members of 
their families. Nearly 3 per cent of the foreign-born 
women who acquired their citizenship through the 
naturalization of their husbands were enmeshed in their 
domestic duties on election day. Nearly one-half of 
all the women who were detained by helpless members 
of their families on April 3, 1923, were in their thirties. 
The other half had just passed the forty-year mark, or 
had not yet reached the age of thirty. In other words, 
practically all the female non-voters under discussion 
were at the most probable child-bearing age. Inasmuch 
as wealthy people can afford to employ maids and 
nurses, the reason under discussion was not of great 


74 NON-VOTING 


importance among the female non-voters living in the 
best residence neighborhoods. About 85 per cent of the 
women detained by sick or helpless members of the 
family lived in houses which rented for less than $50 
a month. Only among the colored female non-voters 
did the criterion of economic status fail to make this 
striking discrimination. 

Over 90 per cent of the non-voters under discussion 
were housewives. With the exception of the men 
already mentioned, the remainder were either daughters 
or mothers. Home-nursing duties explained about 
3 per cent of the cases of non-voting among the house- 
wives interviewed in this study. 

The first matter to be explained by a description of 
individual non-voters who were detained by a helpless 
member of the family is the fact that some of them were 
men. The men who could not leave their homes on 
election day were nearly all attending sick wives. In 
the “‘Stockyards”’ district as well as on the “‘Gold 
Coast,’ there were men who did not vote because the 
illness of their wives caused them to forget all about the 
election. 

Mr. A. David, a retail shoe merchant of Jewish ancestry, was 
registered but failed to cast his vote on April 3 because his wife was 
being operated on and he was in the hospital all that day and most 
of the night. 

In a Dutch community on the South Side a young machinist did 
not vote because his wife and young baby were sick. He declared 
he tried to be a regular voter and had missed voting only one time. 

Mr. Hoefelt, a middle-aged tin worker of German ancestry 
living on the North Side, failed to vote because on April 3 he was 


attending his dying father. He said he had always voted in the 
previous elections. 


With the exception of the foregoing cases all the 
non-voters in the causal group under discussion were 
women. Women whose husbands, whose mothers, 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES 75 


whose sisters, or whose nearby relatives were sick were 
not likely to vote when the care of these sick relatives 
rested primarily upon them. 


In a North Side “German” precinct Mrs. Weber, an elderly 
lady, did not vote because she was at home attending her husband 
whose ankle had been broken. She had voted in the February 
primaries and declared that she always voted. 

In a North Side “Swedish” precinct, Mrs. Peterson did not 
vote because her husband was ill at the time of the election. He 
died shortly after April 3. She had voted last in the presidential 
election of 1920. 

Mrs. Rosenthal, a middle-aged Jewess who lived in the Lawn- 
dale district, did not vote because on election day she was at the 
side of her husband who was in the hospital. She declared that she 
was a regular voter. 

Miss Patrek, a young Polish girl, did not vote because she had 
to stay at home to take care of a sickly nineteen-year-old sister 
and was never able to leave the house to vote. Her mother was 
dead and she was the oldest child in the family. Her father was 
a butcher earning about $15 a week. 

Mrs. McGinnis, a native of Ireland, had lived in this country 
for thirty years, and became a citizen many years ago by virtue of 
her husband’s naturalization papers. Her husband was confined 
in a hospital with a broken leg at the time of the election, and she 
did not wish to go to the polls alone. 

Mrs. Washington, a young colored woman, could not get out to 
vote on election day because she was caring for her sister-in-law who 
received confinement care on that day, and she was also looking 
after her sister’s five children. 


It has been stated that very few women in the best 
residential areas were detained at home on election day 
because of a helpless member of the family. The 
reason for this is that women in better circumstances 
can afford to employ nurses. However, women, regard- 
less of their economic position, are likely to neglect 
general social obligations when their children are sick. 
When quarantined on account of some contagious 
disease caught by their children, their abstention was 
compulsory. 


76 NON-VOTING 


Mrs. A, aged thirty-six, lived in an excellent apartment near 
Hyde Park Boulevard. She was registered but did not vote in the 
mayoralty election because one of her children was ill. She always 
voted when able, and she thought women entirely as capable as men 
to carry on political affairs. 

In the Englewood district a young Swedish woman did not vote 
because her baby was sick. She had been a regular voter since 
becoming an American citizen in 1918. 

In a “Polish” precinct a young woman failed to vote because 
her young baby was sick and when she got someone to take care of 
it, it was too late to vote. She had thought the polls would be 
open until five o’clock. 

Mrs. Schwartz, living in a high-class apartment in the Hyde 
Park district, could not leave her home because she and her children 
were quarantined for scarlet fever. 

Mrs. Simon, an elderly Russian woman, was taking care of 
her convalescent daughter on election day and could not leave her 
home. She said that she always voted in local elections especially 
when a prominent Jew was a candidate. 

An elderly Austrian woman declared that she usually went to 
vote with her daughter, but her daughter was sick on election day 
and she did not want to leave her, nor did she wish to go to the 


polls alone. 
A middle-aged Russian woman living in the Ghetto district did 


not vote because her son was abnormal and could not be left alone. 
She was well read on politics but she felt that she should not run 
off to take part in an election. 


Not all the helplessness in the families of the non- 
voters under discussion was due to sickness. ‘There 
were a great many women who thought they could not 
leave their young children while they voted, and who 
did not want to bother about finding someone to take 
care of them. 


In a Bohemian precinct west of the Yards, Mrs. Palek, aged 
thirty-eight, said she had eight small children and had no time for 
voting. She added that if her husband voted and she took care of 
her children she was doing her duty for her country. 

Mrs. Kate Donovan, aged thirty-nine, a native of Ireland, had 
six children and did not register because she never found time to 
get away from her work and her home. 


PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES te 


Mrs. Sabin’s child was about eight months old. She was not 
registered because her baby was born about the time she became 
twenty-one years of age. 

A young woman of Swedish parentage was registered but did 
not vote because she had no one with whom to leave her baby, and 
she thought that the weather was so bad that she could not take 
her baby with her to the polls. 


Home-nursing duties, like illness and absence from 
the city, describes an objective situation. When it 
has been definitely established that an eligible elector 
was detained at home on election day by a helpless 
member of the family, or that he or she was sick or 
out of the city on election day, the explanation of the 
abstention may be regarded as fairly complete. In 
countries that have compulsory voting, illness and 
absence are looked upon as legitimate excuses for not 
voting. In this country, a sick or an absent elector is 
not looked upon as a negligent citizen. Because of this 
fact it is probable that some of the non-voters inter- 
viewed feigned that they were indisposed or away on 
election day. Nevertheless, an examination of the 
individual cases shows that the great bulk of them were 
genuine. The physical difficulties that render voting 
highly inconvenient can all be traced indirectly to the 
mode of conducting elections in this country. In 
order to safeguard the honesty of elections, it is thought 
necessary to require each individual voter to make a 
personal application for his ballot in his own local voting 
precinct during the specified hours for voting. If work- 
able schemes for voting by mail were in operation and 
were thoroughly understood by the voters, there is no 
reason why qualified electors should be deprived of 
their vote because of illness, absence, or home-nursing 
duties. 


CHAPTER IV 
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 


The legal and administrative obstacles to voting 
discovered in this study were insufficient legal residence, 
fear of loss of business or wages, congestion at the polls, 
poor location of polling booth, and fear of disclosure of 
age. The first one of these obstacles is the only one 
which was strictly legal. ‘The others are largely peculiar 
to the election system in operation in Chicago. For 
instance, most of the persons who did not vote because 
they were afraid of losing business or wages did not 
object to voting as such, but simply found the hours 


TABLE XV 
Per Cent 

Reasons for Not Voting Number eG is 

Interviewed 
Total giving legal and administrative obstacles 666 12.6 
Insufficient legal residence. ..............2.00005. Q74 5.2 
Fear of loss of business or wages..............4.- 289 5.5 
Congestion at polls foot. ss) i a an 44 0.8 
Poor location of polling booth... ......4.....2.%) A5 0.8 
Eear.of' disclosure ofiazes-a: ter. i. Oo ie ae eee 14 0.3 


of voting highly inconvenient. In only a very few 
cases was the non-voting caused by fear of pressure 
from employers or customers. Such obstacles as con- 
gestion at the polls and poor location of polling place 
are obviously connected directly with the administra- 
tion of elections. The same can be said regarding the 
factor described as “‘fear of disclosure of age.” A 
common characteristic of all of these five reasons for 
not voting is that they are based, in part at least, upon 
some defect of the election system which could be rem- 
edied either by changing the law or its administration. 
78 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 79 


INSUFFICIENT LEGAL RESIDENCE 


In order to vote in any election in Illinois a person 
must have lived in the state for one year, in the county 
for three months, and in the election precinct for thirty 
days preceding the particular election. The mobility of 
the population of Chicago is such that there are many 
citizens in the city at every election time who do not 
fulfil all of these requirements. Many casual laborers 
come to the city for periods of less than one year,! and 
many persons register in one part of the city and move 
shortly before election time to another precinct. In 
other words, the short-time increases in the city’s popu- 
lation and the shifts in the population within the city 
deprive a considerable number of persons of the privilege 
of voting. The committeemen who were in close touch 
with the movements of population in their precincts 
assigned considerable importance to insufficient legal 
residence as a cause of non-voting. Nearly 300 out of 
the 5,000 individual non-voters interviewed claimed 
that insufficient legal residence kept them from the polls. 
About one-fifth of the citizens disfranchised in this way 
gave in addition some other cause explaining their 
abstention. It appeared that many of the persons who 
had not been in the city or in the precinct long enough 
to qualify as voters were also indifferent to local elec- 
tions. There were some citizens who lacked sufficient 
legal residence and who were also ignorant regarding 
elections. Where insufficient legal residence appeared 
in combination with some other factor it was impossible 
to tell whether or not the individual would vote as 
soon as he fulfilled the residence qualifications. 

An analysis of non-voters who gave insufficient legal 
residence as a cause of their abstention shows them to 
be alike in many ways. Of the 274 cases of insufficient 

1 Nels Anderson, The Hobo (Chicago, 1923), p. 3. 


80 NON-VOTING 


legal residence used for detailed analysis, 145 were men 
and 129 were women. Relative to the other reasons 
given for not voting, insufficient legal residence was 
twice as important among the men as among the 
women. ‘The men thus disqualified made up about 
one-sixth of all the non-registered males interviewed. 
About one-quarter of both the men and the women who 
failed to vote in the mayoralty election but who had 
had voting experience elsewhere indicated that insuffi- 
cient legal residence alone kept them from voting. 
Some 17 per cent of the habitual non-voters lacked 
sufficient legal residence. ‘This makes the reason under 
discussion second in importance among the factors that 
resulted in some men failing ever to vote. Many of 
the transitory workers never qualify as voters in any 
place. 

A study of the growth of the population of Chicago 
in 1922 would throw some light upon the character of 
those who failed to vote because of insufficient legal 
residence. Following the decreased foreign immigra- 
tion during the world-war, the ranks of the unskilled 
laborers in the city were filled by recruits from the 
negro communities of the South. Consequently, as 
might be expected, the greater proportion of those 
non-voters who did not fulfil the legal residence quali- 
fications for voting on April 3, 1923, were negroes. One 
out of every five negroes interviewed who had not gone 
to the polls on election day accounted for his abstention 
on the ground of insufficient legal residence. ‘There was 
no other racial or nationalistic group having such a large 
proportion of persons who had just moved to the city, 
the residence requirements for naturalization being 
more stringent than the residence qualifications for 
voting. In the ratios that follow, the preponderance of 
the negroes must be recognized as a conditioning factor. 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 81 


_ The negroes who had the energy and initiative to come 
to Chicago during the period of the shortage of immi- 
grant labor were young men and women.! Conse- 
quently, insufficient legal residence figured as a more 
important cause of non-voting among the young 
citizens than it did among the old. Twelve per cent 
of all the male non-voters in their twenties lacked the 
residence qualifications. This percentage was nearly 
twice as great as any found in other age groups. An 
analysis of the young colored non-voters shows how 
common this situation was. One-third of the colored 
male non-voters and one-sixth of the colored female 
non-voters under forty years of age lacked sufficient 
legal residence. 

Sixty per cent of the colored non-voters who lacked 
sufficient legal residence paid less than $50 a month for 
rent. On the other hand, the proportion of negroes who 
had not been in the city long enough to vote was greater 
among those who paid more than $50 a month for rent. 
This same tendency, though less marked, was mani- 
fested among the Irish, Russian, and Scandinavian 
male citizens who gave the reason under discussion. 

While the economic status of the non-voter as indi- 
cated by rent paid did not reveal much regarding the 
actual operation of the residence qualifications for 
voting, the economic status of the non-voter as indicated 
by occupation did. Nearly one-third of those deprived 
of the vote because they had not lived in the state, the 
county, or voting precinct long enough were unskilled 
laborers. ‘The bulk of the remainder were the house- 
wives of the laborers. There were a few scattered 
among the other occupations listed in this study. 
There were two main classes of citizens in Chicago who 
could not vote in the mayoralty election because they 

1See above, p. 30. 


82 NON-VOTING 


lacked legal residence qualifications: first, the young 
colored folk engaged in unskilled labor who had lived 
in the state for less than a year; and second, the 
renters, of all classes and descriptions, who had moved 
out of their old voting precinct less than a month before 
the elections. 

Most of the negroes who could not take part in the 
mayoralty election because they had not lived in the 
state for a year had moved to the city directly from 
some southern state where they had never been allowed 
to vote. The recent arrivals from Tennessee, Arkansas, 
Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina had vivid stories 
about the devices which had been used to disfranchise 
them in the South. While some of them were uncertain 
as to whether they would register as soon as they were 
eligible, most of them seemed to feel that it was a great 
privilege for negroes to be able to vote. 


Mr. Willie Watson, a thirty-nine-year-old colored laborer, had 
never voted in Tennessee, his native state, because he had no desire 
to come in contact with the whites that hung around the polling 
booth there. He declared that he would vote in Chicago as soon as 
he was eligible to register. His wife, also a native of Tennessee, who 
had received some schooling in Nashville, said that she could have 
voted in Tennessee but did not care to undergo the humiliation and 
insult that was attached to negroes voting there. 

Mrs. Smith, a twenty-eight-year-old mulatto, did not think of 
voting when she was in Arkansas because she thought that she 
lacked the property qualifications necessary for voting there. She 
declared that she would very likely register in Chicago as soon as 
she was eligible. 

Mr. E, a young thirty-five-year-old colored laborer in the Pull- 
man yards, felt that his five months’ residence in the city was 
hardly long enough for him “‘to gather the particulars.”’ He did 
not know what attitude he should take toward politics as he had 
never voted in Georgia, his home state. 

A middle-aged laborer in the building trades, who had come to 
Chicago for higher wages in the middle of 1922, declared that he 
would try to learn something about voting and politics in general 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 83 


before he registered. He was glad to get away from the mistreat- 
ment which he had suffered in Alabama, and thought voting in 
Chicago would be a great privilege. 


Not all the negroes who lacked legal residence and 
voting experience felt hesitant about starting to vote. 
Some were so anxious to vote in the mayoralty election 
that they went to the polls only to be turned away 
disappointed. 


Mr. Ruben Anderson, twenty-seven years of age, native of 
Texas, was not at all backward in wanting to “‘try his hand at 
voting.” He went to the polls shortly after he came to the city only 
to be told that he was ineligible. 

Mr. Alonzo Jackson, a young colored laborer in the Armour 
Glue Factory, who had come to Chicago from Arkansas to get better 
wages, said he would register at the first opportunity after he was 
eligible. He explained glibly to his wife that voting was simply a 
matter of putting a cross in front of a candidate’s name. 

Mr. Edwards, a young laborer in the Stockyards, was anxious 
to “‘get on in politics.”” He had attended a rural school in Missis- 
sippi up to the fourth grade and had been enthusiastic about living 
in the North long before the time of his migration in 1922. .As 
soon as he arrived in Chicago, he had talked with the party workers 
and was eager to work with the party organizers. Mrs. Edwards, 
his wife, became of age about the time she arrived in Chicago. 
She was very anxious to vote “‘because her parents had never had 
the chance.” 

Mr. Wesley Carter, a middle-aged laborer in the Stockyards, 
had moved from Little Rock, Arkansas, where he had been a property 
owner and a voter in presidential elections. He had never bothered 
with local elections because he thought that they were of minor 
importance. He said he would vote here as. soon as he was eligible. 

Mr. Waters, a native of Alabama, had lived in Pittsburgh from 
1917 to 1922, during which time he had voted. He said he had come 
to Chicago for economic reasons, and would vote here as soon as 
eligible. 

Mr. Washington Hunter, a middle-aged laborer in a spring 
factory, had registered in St. Louis and declared that he would do 
the same in Chicago. He was a native of Louisiana, and had moved 
to the North because he saw everyone leaving his old home com- 
munity. 


84 NON-VOTING 


Some of the colored non-voters who failed to fulfil 
the requirement of a year’s residence in the state were 
uncertain as to whether they would ever vote or not, 
because their local attachments were so loose. 


Mr. Thomas Williams was a middle-aged, shiftless-looking 
casual laborer in the building trades who had lived in Chicago off 
and on for eight years. In 1921 he had started out for California 
and had “‘knocked about the country”’ since that time, not remain- 
ing long enough in one place to get a voting residence. 

Mr. Johnson was born in Pennsylvania in 1898. He worked as 
a waiter on a boat and declared that he had been traveling about 
the country since he was twenty-one years of age and had not been 
eligible to vote in any place. 

Miss Sarah Dean, a middle-aged helper in a commission house, 
had not lived long enough in one place to get a voting residence, 
and so had never voted. She merely had a room in Chicago and 
did not consider the city her permanent residence. 


Not all the colored citizens who lacked legal resi- 
dence were entirely new to the city. Many had lived 
in the city for considerably more than a year prior to 
the mayoralty election but were deprived of their vote 
at the election because they had moved from one voting 
precinct to another since their last registration. The 
housing facilities for the negroes in Chicago were so 
deficient in 1922-23 that the colored population was 
constantly shifting. Many old colored residents lost 
their vote because they moved a few blocks just before 
the election. 


Mr. Jack Lewis, a thirty-eight-year-old laborer in-the Stock- 
yards, said that his family had had to move from “pillar to post”’ 
since coming to Chicago in 1921, trying to get decent quarters. 
He had not been eligible to register because he had never stayed 
long enough in one precinct. 

Mr. Ned Ring, a laborer at McCormick’s, had lived in the 
Twenty-eighth Ward for fifteen years, and had always voted regu- 
larly. He would have voted in April if he had not lacked a few 
days of fulfilling the residence requirements in the voting precinct 
into which he moved from an adjoining precinct. 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 85 


Practically all of the white non-voters who lacked 
sufficient legal residence had had voting experience 
elsewhere, and were looking forward to voting in Chi- 
cago as soon as they qualified.1. Persons from Kansas 
City, Cleveland, New York, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and 
Michigan said that they had voted in their old home 
states, and would vote in Chicago as soon as they had 
been in Illinois for a year. Some had even voted in 
the city but lost their vote in the mayoralty election 
because they had moved within thirty days of the 
election. 


Mr. Victor Solomon, a middle-aged weaver of Jewish extrac- 
tion, said that he had never missed an election when he was in 
New York. He thought that everyone should vote, and was dis- 
gusted with the lack of interest which most Jewish people showed in 
politics. He planned to vote as soon as he was eligible. 

Mrs. B, a middle-aged housewife living in the Hyde Park dis- 
trict, also came to Chicago in 1922. She had been interested in 
politics and had worked actively in her home state of Kentucky to 
induce women to vote. ; 

Mr. Lunt, a young man connected with the Quaker Oats Com- 
pany, said that he had not been interested in voting here. He 
added that he had taken an active interest in politics in Wisconsin 
where he had voted in 1920. His wife said that she knew too little 
to vote intelligently as yet in a Chicago election, although like her 
husband, she had been a regular voter in Wisconsin. 

Mr. Olson, a well-to-do manufacturer, had come to the city from 
Michigan, and did not know much about politics but intended to 
vote at the next election as he had always voted in his old home state. 

Mr. Brown, connected with the Armour Company, usually 
voted, and he had tried to get his registration transferred from his old 
precinct but could not. The change of residence was the only 
thing that prevented him from voting in April, 1923. 


There were some white casual laborers who had never 
‘been in the state long enough to qualify as electors. 
1In Massachusetts this factor was found to be more important among 


the native-born than among the foreign-born. See J. P. Gavit, Americans 
by Choice (New York, 1922), p. 248. 


86 NON-VOTING 


These non-voters were found in the “Hobohemia” 
section of Chicago. 

Mr. Janson, an elderly truckman of Norwegian extraction, 
did not vote because he had traveled around quite a lot as a farm 
worker and as an unskilled laborer. During his travels he had lost 
his naturalization papers and everything that he had, so he did not 
bother any more about voting. 

Mr. Murphy, a middle-aged laborer, came to Chicago in the 
latter part of 1922. He changed cities when his work failed, and 
had been moving about so much that he had not voted since he was 
in Boston in 1919. 

Mr. R, a government official, did not vote because he moved 
about the country so much that he was rarely able to qualify in 
any state. He had voted last in New York, in 1921. 


The residence qualifications for voting in Illinois, 
like the residence qualifications in most of the American 
states, disfranchise the new residents. This situation 
explains in part why the non-voters were much newer 
to the city than were the registered voters in the areas 
canvassed. In 1923 the great bulk of the new residents 
in Chicago were negroes who had been attracted by the 
shortage of unskilled labor in the city. There were 
also some adult citizens, white as well as colored, who 
were legally barred from voting because they had 
moved into their precinct within thirty days of the 
election. This class could be enfranchised by providing 
for an easy transfer of registration. Thereis no demand 
for the extension of the franchise to those who have 
lived in the state for less than a year. This study 
shows that the negroes who were moving to the city 
from the South needed at least a year to acquaint them- 
selves with the politics of the city. 


FEAR OF LOSS OF BUSINESS OR WAGES 


In 1891 the General Assembly of Illinois passed a 
law which entitled any voter to absent himself from any 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 87 


services or employment in which he was then engaged, 
for a period of two hours between the time of opening 
and closing the polls on election day, without penalty 
or deduction in pay.! This law was designed to enable 
workingmen to vote without fear of discrimination or 
loss of wages. No test has been made of the effective- 
ness of the law in accomplishing this purpose. How- 
ever, the Supreme Court of the state tested the 
constitutionality of the law and found it wanting. On 
February 21, 1923, the court held that the law was 
invalid in that it denied due process of law and could 
not be construed as a valid exercise of the police power.’ 
This decision, coming as it did just before the mayoralty 
election, undoubtedly had some effect upon the impor- 
tance of the factor of fear of loss of wages as a cause of 
non-voting. The precinct committeemen, the persons 
of political prominence, and the interviewers all gave 
this cause considerable weight. The labor manager of 
a large clothing-house in the city told of several com- 
plaints that were made by the union workers when they 
were not paid for voting time. One of these complaints 
was carried to the Board of Arbitration in the men’s 
clothing industry established by voluntary agreement 
between the union and the employers. The labor 
manager made the following comment upon the deci- 
sion, which, like that of the Supreme Court, was adverse 
to the claim: 


At any rate, the men in this department presented me with a 
claim for pay for the time they had taken off to vote on that election 
day. They pleaded that they did not know of the new ruling. 
The spokesman for the people told me frankly that hereafter if the 
firm was so small as not to be willing to pay its employees for the 
time they took off to vote, that they certainly would not trouble 
to vote. 


1 Chap. 646, Nos. 228, 387. 
2 People v. C. M. & St. P. R.R. Co., 306 Ill., 486 (1923). 


88 NON-VOTING 


I have not had the opportunity to check up among all our people 
to see how far prevalent this attitude is, but I am convinced that 
there is not as much enthusiasm for the ballot, particularly when 
there is no compensation involved, as you and I and other friends 
of good government might desire. 


On the 5,000 schedules turned in by the interviewers, 
fear of loss of business or wages appeared nearly four 
hundred times. It was rated as the most important 
reason for not voting in 289 cases. In contrast to some 
of the other reasons which have been discussed, it was 
found more frequently in combination with neglect 
than in combination with general indifference. It was 
also quite commonly linked together with poor voting 
facilities. All of these were logical combinations. In 
Chicago, the polls were open on election day from 
6 o’clock in the morning until 4 o’clock in the afternoon. 
Many workingmen felt that they had to vote before 
they went to work if they voted at all. Many men had 
to start from their homes about 6:00 a.m. or shortly 
afterward in order to arrive on time at their work. 
This meant that the polls were crowded in the working- 
class districts during the first hour that they were 
open. A workingman who failed to vote early in the 
morning might have stopped work early and voted in 
the afternoon. However, the slightest misjudgment 
on his part as to the time that he needed to get from his 
working place to the polling booth would have deprived 
him of his vote. 

Fear of loss of business or wages was six times as 
common a cause of non-voting among the men as it was 
among the women. It ranked third in importance 
with the men and eleventh with the women. Three- 
fourths of the 289 non-voters under discussion were men. 
Approximately 13 per cent of all the male non-voters 
interviewed declared that they could not afford at the 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 89 


last election to take the time from their work to vote. 
Only 2 per cent of the female non-voters gave the same 
explanation of their abstention. While the great 
majority of both the men and women who could not 
take time off to vote were registered, there was a 
respectable proportion of the men who could not 
register because of their long hours of work. In fact, 
fear of loss of business or wages ranked fourth among 
the various reasons given why men do not register. 
Every twelfth man interviewed whose name did not 
appear on the list of registered voters was likely to say 
that he could not leave his work on registration day. 
The same ratio held for the men who had never voted. 
However, among the female habitual non-voters the 
number who gave this reason was inconsiderable. 

The native whites of native parentage were less 
likely to be prevented from voting for this reason than 
were those of foreign parentage. In other words, the 
native whites of native parentage who were interviewed 
nearly always occupied a more independent economic 
position than did those of foreign parentage, and were 
therefore less likely to give fear of loss of business or 
wages as a reason why they did not vote. Between 15 
and 20 per cent of all the Scandinavian, Irish, Italian, 
Slavic, and German male non-voters feared that voting 
would mean a pecuniary loss to them, while only 9 per 
cent of the native white male non-voters had the 
same misgiving. If the number of negroes who gave 
insufficient legal residence or disgust with own party as 
the reason for their not voting is cut to a normal ratio, the 
ratio of colored electors who did not vote because of fear 
of loss of business or wages was about the same as that 
found among the white citizens of foreign parentage. 

The young men, under forty years of age, were more 
dependent upon their employers and their customers 


90 NON-VOTING 


than were the men over forty years of age. Nearly 
one-quarter of the young male non-voters of foreign 
parentage admitted that this was their situation. 
Among all the older male non-voters only 8.8 per cent, 
and among the older non-voting males of native par- 
entage only 5 per cent, admitted that their employ- 
ment interfered in any way with the performance of 
their civic obligations. About the same relation 
between youthfulness, economic pressure, and non- 
voting was found among the women. The young 
colored female non-voters and the young Polish female 
non-voters were the most apt to give fear of loss of busi- 
ness or wages as the reason why they did not vote. 
With the Scandinavian and Bohemian women, however, 
the age factor seemed to work the other way, for among 
them the older women were more apt to give this 
reason than were the younger. 

A lower ratio of employment excuses was found 
among those who had been in the city less than ten 
years than among those who were old residents of the 
city. The explanation of this may be that the newer 
residents were non-voters for other reasons, as, for 
instance, indifference or insufficient legal residence. 
Another interpretation may be that many of the newer 
residents were older men and came to the city to occupy 
positions of more or less independence, while the non- 
voters who had been in the city from twenty to twenty- 
nine years included many men born in Chicago who were 
just working their way up in the industrial world. 
Among the colored, the Russian, and the Scandinavian 
non-voters the newer residents were more likely to 
explain their abstention on the ground of competing 
business interests than were the old. 

As might be expected, the voters who stayed away 
from the polls because of economic pressure came 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 91 


largely from the poorer neighborhoods. In the resi- 
dential districts where rents were over $65 per month, 
only a little over 5 per cent of the male non-voters gave 
fear of loss of business or wages as the reason why they 
did not vote, while in the neighborhoods where prevail- 
ing rents were under $65 a month nearly 15 per cent of 
the male non-voters gave this reason. Except in the 
case of a few citizens of Scandinavian or German stock, 
the lower the rent the more apt were the electors to be 
bound down by economic ties which made it incon- 
venient for them to vote. 

The relation between occupation and fear of loss of 
business or wages is shown in Table XIII. Twenty- 
seven per cent of all the small shopkeepers interviewed 
in this investigation were afraid of losing their cus- 
tomers if they took time to vote. Fifteen per cent of 
the laborers, skilled and unskilled, were afraid of losing 
part of their pay if they stopped work to vote, and 
about 8 per cent of the business men, the salesmen, the 
professional men, the clerical workers, and the domestic 
servants were afraid of suffering economic losses of 
one kind or another, if they disturbed their routine by 
voting. Fear of loss of business or wages was one of 
the least important causes of non-voting among the 
housewives. | 

There are some adult citizens who have never voted 
because of fear of loss of business or wages. As in the 
case of the irregular male voters, they were the young 
men of all nationalities who had just come into the 
city. Most of them lived in the poorer sections of the 
city, engaging in skilled or unskilled work or in the small 
retail business. 

Fear of loss of business or wages was a state of mind 
which stimulated non-voting among the registered 
males of colored or foreign parentage who were under 


92 NON-VOTING 


forty years of age, who lived in neighborhoods where 
rents were less than $50 a month, and who were 
employed in manufacturing, construction work, or in 
the small retail business. It also was found among 
some of the men who had never voted. 

A few case studies from each of the occupational 
groups used in this study will serve to illustrate some 
of the generalizations which have been made above. 
Since so many of the small shopkeepers interviewed 
declared that their non-voting was due to fear of loss 
of business, the discussion of this group furnishes a 
good starting-point. 


A young man who ran a restaurant on Claremont Avenue 
declared that he left home for the store at 4:30 a.m. before the polls 
were open. As he had no one to relieve him at the store, he could 
not vote. Usually, however, he voted as he had “‘many friends 
' in polities.” 

On West Fiftieth Place a woman of German parentage ate 
kept a small grocery store said that she had no time to vote as there 
was no one to relieve her. Her husband worked elsewhere during 
the daytime. 

An Austrian woman who kept a small atic on East Fifty-fifth 
Street frankly admitted that she was “‘not sufficiently interested in 
this election to leave a young girl in charge of the shop while going 
to vote.” 

On Federal Street, in the heart of the colored section, a young 
negro who ran a lunchroom said that he was too busy to get off on 
registration day. He contended that he had to spend all his time 
building up trade. 


After the small shopkeepers, the working classes 
contained the highest proportion of persons who did 
not vote because of economic pressure. A precinct 
committeeman from the Twenty-third Ward said: 
** Voting hours are from 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.—polls are 
crowded and he will be compelled to lose time at his 
work. The boss will have it in for him if they are busy 
and dock him, besides, or when work is slack will dis- 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 93 


charge him, giving other reasons.” In the working- 
class districts many colored and Polish laborers were 
found who did not vote because their hours of employ- 
ment in the steel mills, in the Stockyards, or in some 
other industrial plant left them no time for such matters. 


Mr. C, a young Pole, worked in “‘Indiana Harbor.” He had 
been in the country and the city for fifteen years, but he had never 
voted as he had always left for work early in the morning and could 
not get back before the polls closed. 

Mr. Harris, forty years of age, a native of Alabama who had 
been in the city seven years as a laborer in the Stockyards, said 
that he had thought of voting on his way to work. He forgot 
about it and stopped on his way home, but he returned too late to 
vote. He added that he never lays off for politics as he cannot 
afford to do so. 

A young colored laborer in the First Ward who worked in South 
Chicago said that he had not voted since “they stopped giving 
time to vote.”” He wasa native of Alabama and had been a resident 
of the city for six or seven years. 

Mr. B, colored, who worked in a manufacturing plant on the 
West Side, left for work in the morning before the polls were open, 
and he did not get back until after they were closed. Before he 
began work in this particular plant he had always been a regular 
voter. 


Workingmen of Irish, German, Swedish, or native 
American parentage were interviewed who failed to vote 
because they could not afford to take time off from their 
jobs. 


In a North Side precinct an Irish policeman failed to vote 
because he had been at work on election day in another precinct. 

A young man in the Hammond Company said that after working 
thirteen hours he was too tired to bother about voting. He had to 
lay off to rest. Sometimes he was given time to vote and some- 
times he was not. He was indifferent toward elections when he 
was given no time off. 

A telephone lineman of Swedish ancestry said that he did not 
vote at the mayoralty election because he had to get out in the storm 
to fix lines. 


94 NON-VOTING 


A young cylinder press feeder in a large printing plant declared 
that he was no longer given time off to vote. He did not like to 
vote on his own time, as the spring was a busy season and he must 
make up for the dull periods. He felt that voting was the duty of 
every citizen and that citizens should be given time off to vote. 

A printer of Italian stock who worked in a small shop could not 
afford to lose the time to vote as a large amount of work had piled 
up. He was even working nights at the time of the spring election. 


Those engaged in night work were also apt to be non- 
voters, not because they feared a direct pecuniary loss, 
but rather because they did not want to lose any of 
their productive capacity from lack of sleep. 

A street-car motorman of German parentage, thirty-two years 
of age, did not vote because his hours of employment at the time of 
the election were such that he would have had to give up some 
sleep in order to vote. 

A young merchant of German parentage declared that he was 
working sixteen hours per day and sleeping in the daytime. He 
thought that he needed sleep more than the vote. 


So far, the discussion of situations in which economic 
pressure is the chief cause of non-voting has been con- 
fined to the description of individuals living in the poor 
neighborhoods. In the prosperous residential areas, 
there are relatively fewer such individuals but they are 
not altogether absent. 


A middle-aged contractor living in the Woodlawn district of 
Chicago did not vote because he had to be at work early to super- 
intend matters. He hired many men to work for him, and he 
liked to be on the job when the work started. In spite of this fact, 
he admitted that he was sorry that he had failed to register and vote, 
and he declared that he intended to vote next time. 


With the exception of some small shopkeepers, the 
individual non-voters so far taken up in this reason 
group have all been men. Many women workers also 
did not vote because the voting hours conflicted with 
their working hours. 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 95 


A stenographer, about forty years of age, born in the city, of 
German parentage, did not vote because she was not permitted to 
take time off as hitherto. If she had voted she would have lost a 
day’s pay. She said that her pay was “‘worth more to her than all 
the mayors and presidents in the country.” 

A young German maid, a native of German parentage, living 
near the Stockyards, had always voted until she took a position 
which made it impossible. She had to start work before the polls 
were open and she did not return until about 6:00 p.m. 

Mrs. Olson, a young Swedish washerwoman, whose husband 
died several years ago, did not vote because she arrived home from 
work too late to vote. She has two children to support and could 
not get along without what little she earned at her work. 


In all the cases discussed in this section, one fact 
stands out clearly. Many working people in Chicago 
find the voting hours extremely inconvenient. The law 
which compelled employers to give their employees time 
off with pay on the election day was declared uncon- 
stitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court. Even if the 
law had been upheld, it would not have solved the 
situation. With the great number of elections that 
occur in Chicago each year, the financial burden of 
voting upon many individuals is a not inconsiderable 
factor. Elections might be held upon a uniform day 
which could be declared a legal holiday, or elections 
might be held on Sundays, as in several European 
countries. 


POOR VOTING FACILITIES 


Congestion at the polls and poor location of the 
polling booth are such closely related electoral diffi- 
culties that it is advisable to consider them under the 
general heading of “‘poor voting facilities.” On the 
registration days under discussion the polls were open 
from eight in the morning until nine in the evening. 
But on the election day the polls were open only from six 
in the morning until four in the afternoon. ‘This meant 


96 NON-VOTING 


that workingmen practically had to register in the eve- 
ning and to vote early inthe morning. Some working- 
men had to start for the place of their employment so 
early that it was highly inconvenient for them to vote 
at all. Those who did have a few minutes before 
starting out in the morning often found the polls 
congested. According to the law, a voting precinct 
should contain as nearly as practicable 400 voters, but 
some of the precincts contained as many as 500 or 
600 voters. It is quite obvious that the congestion 
at the polls in the working-class precincts early in the 
morning kept a considerable number from voting. 
The provision of the City Election Act regarding the 
selection of polling places was another portion of the law 
the operation of which sometimes made voting disagree- 
able. The Election Commissioners are directed by the 
law to select the most public and convenient places that 
can be found in each precinct for places of registry and 
voting. In a number of precincts the commissioners 
could not find any desirable places. ‘The result was 
that some of the polling places were located in barber 
shops, poolrooms, basements, garages, and other places 
to which sensitive women hesitated to go. | 

However diligent the Election Commissioners may 
be in performing their duties, the fact remains that the 
party experts regarded congestion at the polls as an 
important cause of non-voting. There were 89 indi- 
vidual non-voters who complained about the voting 
facilities in their particular precinct. Slightly over one- 
half of these objected to the location of the polling 
booth, and the rest thought that the voting facilities 
were adequate. Those who thought that the polls 
were congested were also likely either to fear loss of 
business or wages or to be careless about voting. On 
the other hand, those who thought that the polling 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 97 


booth was located in an unsuitable place were likely to 
be either indifferent or ignorant regarding elections. 
Only 41 of those interviewed gave poor voting facilities 
as the sole reason for their abstention on April 3, 1923. 
To these were added other non-voters giving complex 
explanations in which poor voting facilities loomed up 
as the most important factor. 

Of the 89 individual non-voters who gave poor vot- 
ing facilities as their principal reason for not voting, 
42 were men and 47 were women. ‘The men were likely 
to object to a long line at the polls while the women were 
likely to find the polling place uncongenial. Relative 
to the other causes of non-voting neither congestion 
at the polls nor poor location of the polling booth 
appeared as very important reasons. Only 1.5 per 
cent of all the non-voters interviewed found it incon- 
venient to vote because of the nature of the voting 
facilities offered. Nevertheless, this factor, the de- 
scription of which suggests at once the remedy, is an 
administrative obstacle to voting which is worth con- 
sidering. ‘Two per cent of the registered male non- 
voters did not vote because the polling place was 
crowded. Nearly a dozen women were found who never 
voted because they objected to entering the place where 
the polling booth was located. One per cent of the 
women interviewed who had voting experience in Chi- 
.eago refused to return to the polls because of the 
unpleasant experiences that they had on the occasion 
of their first visit. 

The complaints regarding voting facilities were 
found more largely among the colored, the German, the 
Polish, and Russian non-voters. Five per cent of all 
the colored male non-voters declared that they were 
deprived of their vote because of congestion at the polls 
early in the morning. At elections when there is a full 


98 NON-VOTING 


colored vote, it is probable that the percentage is much 
higher inasmuch as the greater portion of the negroes 
are laborers whose hours of employment clash with the 
voting hours. There was a slight accumulation of 
complaints against the location of the polling booth 
among the female colored non-voters and among the 
female non-voters of Russian parentage. 

The number of individuals who did not like the 
voting facilities that were afforded at the mayoralty 
election were so few that analysis of their age can hardly 
be expected to bring out any startling conclusions. 
Men of all ages found the polls crowded, and women of 
different ages found the polling place uncongenial. 
However, there were many young men, especially 
colored young men, who complained about congestion 
at the polls, and there was an unduly large proportion 
of elderly white women who were finicky about the 
location of the polling booth. 

Complaints regarding poor voting facilities were 
heard principally in poor neighborhoods. Congestion 
at the polls was found to be most significant in pre- 
cincts where the prevailing rents were around $15 a 
month. ‘These were in the colored and white working- 
class areas where so many found the hours of voting 
inconvenient, and where precinct lines were being 
rapidly outgrown. ‘Those who did not like the location 
of the polling booth were also likely to come from the 
poor neighborhoods, but the tendency here was not as 
striking as in the case of those complaining about con- 
gestion at the polls. Both congestion at the polls and 
poor location of polling booth were of greatest signifi- 
cance among the men and women living in flats. The 
men whose hours of work were such that they could 
only vote early in the morning when the polls were 
likely to be crowded were unskilled laborers or clerical 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 99 


workers. The women who found the location of the 
polling booth distasteful were likely to be domestic 
servants or housewives. 

In conclusion, it can be said that poor voting facili- 
ties tended to keep from voting those persons living in 
the poorest neighborhoods who were unskilled workers, 
clerical workers, or housewives. 

Since complaints about poor voting facilities were re- 
ceived only in certain specified precincts, it will be profit- 
able to consider the actual conditions found in some of 
these precincts. There was some grumbling about the 
voting facilities afforded in several precincts in congested 
foreign districts near the Stockyards. A few cases will 
indicate the nature of the complaints that were offered. 

Mr. Herman Gorski, a middle-aged leather sorter who came to 
this country from Poland in 1906, lived four blocks from the polling 
place. He did not vote in the mayoralty election because when he 
went to the polls they were crowded and when he came home it 
was too late to vote. 

Mrs. Kysko, thirty-one years of age, was registered but did 
not vote because the polling place was too far from her home. She 
declared that she walked enough in a day. Anyone would think a 


é 


woman “‘crazy”’ who worked all day and then walked four blocks 
just to vote. She had voted last in the spring of 1922. 

In a West Side precinct, a young woman of Bohemian parentage 
did not vote because she was told at the first polling place she found 
that she had to go into the next precinct, and upon reaching the 
polling place of that precinct, she found it crowded. By this time 
her baby had become so cross that she got disgusted and went home. 

There were more persons who complained about 
inadequate voting facilities in a certain colored precinct 
than in any other precinct canvassed in this study. As 
has already been indicated, this precinct was in the 
heart of one of the oldest colored sections of the city. 
A few of the complaints which were heard will give 
an idea of the voting facilities that were furnished in 
this precinct. The men complained principally about 


100 NON-VOTING 


congestion at the polls. The objections which the 
women in this precinct had to the voting facilities offered 
concerned the location of the polling booth. 


Mr. Tom Cannon, aged forty-one, a colored laborer in the build- 
ing trades, was not registered because no one notified him of the 
registration date. He learned of it on the way to work registration 
morning. ‘The polls were too congested to register then, and when 
he returned home it was too late. He thought the party workers 
were at fault for not bringing the registration date to his notice, and 
he probably did not know that he might have registered in the 
evening any time before nine o’clock. 

Mr. Clark, a colored laborer in the Stockyards of about the 
same age, was registered in the precinct but did not vote at the 
mayoralty election because he was unable to make up his mind 
until late in the day to split his ticket, and when he did go to the 
polls he found them congested. 

Mrs. Lizzie Bell, a native of Alabama who had lived in the city 
for twelve years, declared that the polling booth was located in a — 
notorious pool and gambling place where there had been some “‘cut- 
ting” scrapes. She was afraid to go near it. 

Mrs. Jennie Turner, fifty-seven years of age, complained 
that in the North and the South voting was distasteful. In Ten- 
nessee she did not wish to come in contact with the discourteous 
and uncouth people at the polling booth, and in Chicago she refused 
to vote because the voting booth was in a pool hall. Such occur- 
rences caused her to lose all interest in politics. 


On the side of the Stockyards opposite from the 
Polish precincts already discussed were found several 
precincts in which some Irish and Russian voters com- 
plained about the voting facilities. 


In a precinct of the Fourteenth Ward Mrs. May Weinstein, 
aged thirty-three, did not vote because the polling place was too 
crowded and dirty. She was not in sympathy with the “‘shanty 
Irish”’ in her precinct, and had little to do with them or with the 
politics of the precinct. 

Miss Ida Kodner, a young clerk living in the same precinct, was 
born in Russia. She had had a grammar-school education and some 
voting experience, but did not vote in the mayoralty election because 
she was a little reticent about entering the crowded polling place. 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 101 


Miss Litowich, a young stenographer of Russian extraction, 
was registered in a precinct of the Twentieth Ward, which was in 
the heart of the Ghetto district. She was not interested enough in 
the mayoralty election to wait in the long line which she found 
when she came to the polls early in the morning. 


In some of the well-to-do neighborhoods, also, there 
were complaints about the kind of voting facilities 
offered. 


In a precinct of the Twenty-fourth Ward, Mrs. Wolf said that 
the polling place was always located in a poolroom or barber shop 
which always contained a “‘bunch of rowdies” who made insulting 
remarks about the passing women. 

Mrs. Barnes, a lodging-house keeper in a precinct of the Fifth 
Ward, had lived twenty-five years in Chicago but had never voted. 
Then she had a roomer who was sick and on whom she had to wait 
quite a bit. This individual was so enthusiastic about elections 
that she became interested herself and so went to the registration. 
She did not like to go to “that barber shop in the first place,” and 
when she saw how crowded it was, she was dismayed and so did not 
vote. 

In a precinct of the Forty-third Ward, near the “Gold Coast,” 
Mrs. V, a middle-aged woman who had lived in the city for twenty- 
five years, did not vote because she had found the polling place 
located in a very unpleasant cigar store. Since there were only 
65 women out of a total of 231 voters in this precinct on April 3, 
1923, her impression that there were too few women at the polls 
was well founded. 

In a precinct of the Forty-ninth Ward, a high-class apartment 
area on the North Side, Mr. Greely, a newspaper editor, did not 
vote because the polls were crowded in the morning when he went 
to vote and when he came back it was too late in the evening. He 
thought the hours of voting not arranged well for those who work. 
He declared that he always voted when he could because he thought 
every citizen should vote, although he himself would not care to 
meddle in politics like some people who were making a living in 
politics. 


Some of the people who failed to vote in the mayor- 
alty election complained that they could not find the 
polling place. 


102 NON-VOTING 


In the Hyde Park district, Mrs. Messinger, a middle-aged 
housewife, did not vote because she had such a time trying to find 
the voting booth. She thought that there ought to be more booths 
and that the location of these booths should be brought to the 
attention of the voters in some effective manner. She even sug- 
gested that a band be furnished by the city for each polling place. 

Mr. Brown, an American Express Company driver, could not 
find where the polling place was located in his precinct in the 
Thirty-eighth Ward. He was sent around from one place to 
another until he got disgusted and quit. 

Mr. Barton, a wholesale merchant, complained that the polling 
place was continually shifting and he was unable to keep up with 
its latest shifts. He was angry at the loss of his vote. 

Congestion at the polls, like fear of loss of business or 
wages, was an administrative obstacle to voting which 
grew directly out of the peculiar voting hours in 
Chicago. The time during which the polls were open 
was so short that many voters were disfranchised. 
Workingmen who tried to vote early in the morning 
in order to avoid losing any of their working time 
found the polls congested. The polls should have been 
open until seven in the evening in order to give the 
workingmen a chance to vote after their work. Such 
voting hours are found in Ohio and in many other parts 
of the United States. It has also been suggested in 
this connection that elections could be held on Sunday 
as in continental European countries. If this innova- 
tion were made, it would clearly simplify the problem 
of getting efficient election clerks and other workers. 
However, it must be recognized that there are strong 
prejudices against the adoption of this system. 

The polling places in Chicago are of such a char- 
acter that many eligible electors do not want to go into 
them to register. If a suitable room cannot be found 
in some building in the precinct the custom of providing 
temporary booths or of using schoolhouses for polling 
places might be adopted. 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 103 


FEAR OF DISCLOSURE OF AGE 


The registration law of Illinois requires that all 
persons who register for voting must give their age. 
The obvious purpose of this requirement is to provide 
a check against impersonation. Honest and efficient 
election officials could easily detect a young man trying 
to vote under the name of an old man. However, one 
of the by-products of the requirement has been the 
refusal of some citizens who are sensitive about their 
age to register at all. The method employed in this 
investigation makes it difficult to estimate how many 
people balk at registering because of the age require- 
ment. The precinct committeemen and the persons 
prominent in political life both regarded fear of dis- 
closure of age as an important reason why some people 
did not register. On the other hand, the interviewers 
found only 14 people out of the 5,000 or more 
approached who frankly admitted that they did not 
register because they did not want to tell their age to 
the election officials before their neighbors. Persons 
who were sensitive about their age were likely to avoid 
the subject altogether and to give general indifference 
or disbelief in woman’s voting as the verbal explanation 
of their abstention. In fact, one of these two reasons 
was quite commonly linked with fear of disclosure of 
age as a secondary explanation. 

The small number of individuals who gave the reason 
under discussion can hardly be subjected to an elaborate 
statistical analysis. Since those who disliked to reveal 
their age constituted less than 1 per cent of nearly all 
subclassifications used in this study, it will be more 
convenient to deal with them on a numerical basis than 
on a percentage basis. 

All but two of the non-voters interviewed who con- 
fessed that they did not want to tell their age were 


104 NON-VOTING 


women.! Although most of them had had voting 
experience, only two were registered. One-half of 
them were about thirty years of age, and the rest were 
all over forty years of age, two of them being nearly 
seventy. 

Seven of the non-voters under consideration were 
living in dwelling places which rented for over $50 a 
month, while the rest of them were in tenements renting 
for less than $25 a month. ‘The proportion of women 
who did not like to tell their age was slightly higher in 
the well-to-do neighborhoods than in the poor. How- 
ever, the difference was so small that no inferences can 
be made from it. 

Inasmuch as age and sex are the most important 
factors explaining the development of a fear complex 
regarding the disclosure of age, the most interesting 
cases in the group will now be discussed from that point 
of view. First, why should any man be sensitive about 
telling his age ? 

Mr. V, an elderly negro, was born in Kentucky about the time 
of the Civil War. He came to Chicago in 1914. He appeared to 
be much younger than he actually was. He did not wish to give 
his age because he feared that if it were known he would lose his 
job as a laborer in a cooper shop. His boss had been in the habit 


of discriminating in favor of younger men. Besides he was 
unschooled and took little interest in Chicago politics. 


The three women in the group under twenty-five 
years of age all came from German or Polish sections 
of the city. Two of them were married and one was 
not. The one who was not married worked in a tele- 


1 The nativity of the parents of the non-voters under discussion was as 
follows: native white parentage, 2; native colored parentage, 3; German 
parentage, 4; Scandinavian parentage, 3; English parentage, 1; and Polish 
parentage, 1. With the exception of two women, one Swedish-born and 
the other German-born, all of them were native-born. All seven of the 
total of both sexes were born in Chicago. 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 105 


phone office. She did not register on “account of 
giving her age,”’ and because of the necessity of getting 
up early to vote. She liked her sleep too well for that. 
The four women who had just passed their thirtieth 
birthdays and the middle-aged women came from differ- 
ent sections of the city. 


Mrs. Masterson from the Stockyards district lived in her 
mother’s flat. On election day she went shopping and did not 
get back from town in time to vote. She objected to telling her 
age and said that she “‘won’t vote the next time she has to tell her 
age.’ Mrs. Masterson was one of the women in this group who 
was not interested in politics. 

Mrs. Lane, living in a fine house in the Hyde Park neighbor- 
hood, told the interviewer frankly that she did not want to tell her 
age. She thought it was nobody’s business just so she was twenty- 
one. Therefore she refused to register. | 

Mrs. Miller lived in a good apartment on the North Side. 
She did not like to tell her age, nor did she like to lie about it. 
Consequently she was not interested in politics. 

Mrs. Thing lived in a fifty-dollar-a-month apartment in the 
Woodlawn district. She did not register because she thought her 
age would be disclosed to neighbors at the polls. She did not wish 
everybody to know her affairs so she kept away. 

Miss Wylie, a middle-aged spinster, living west of Humboldt 
Park in her father’s house, was of the same opinion. She snapped 
at the interviewer as follows: “Too many gabby women on the 
board. Can’t tell age.” 


The old women who said that they did not like to 
tell their age at the polls likewise represented a varied 
group. 

Mrs. Mitchell was born in the city, of English parents, about the 
time of the Civil War. She was registered but did not vote at the 
mayoralty election in 1923 because she was sick in bed at the time. 
She also objected to telling her age. She made the following com- 
plaint: “‘They make fun at you at the polls. If I have to tell my 
age, I won’t vote.” 

Mrs. Watson was an elderly colored woman from Tennessee who 
lived in an apartment with her son-in-law. When asked why she 


106 NON-VOTING 


did not register, she replied: “‘Because you have to tell the history 
of your life. I don’t want to do this. I registered once but I do 
not expect to do so again.”” Mrs. Watson at first said she did not 
know her age and she glared at her daughter when the latter said 
that she was sixty-five years old. 

Mrs. Koch, a German-born woman, living in the Hyde Park 
district, came to this country in 1853. She was not registered 
because in registering in 1920 she had found “‘some of the officers a 
trifle pert and curious on the subject of ages.” 

The provision of the election laws of Llinois which 
requires all persons to give their age when registering to 
vote kept many women and a few men from voting. 
The women, so deterred, were about thirty years of 
age and they were found in all sections of the city. The 
men who did not like to disclose their ages were past 
sixty and feared they might have to give up their 
jobs to younger men. It is conceivable that another 
system of registration might be devised which could 
dispense with the requirement of age. _The use of the 
signature, a photograph, or some other means of identi- 
fication might be used. 

Another administrative obstacle to voting, which 
was not mentioned by the non-voters themselves, was 
given by the precinct committeemen and the persons 
prominent in the political life of the city. This was 
fear of jury duty. Although the jury lists in Chicago 
are made up from the legal voters of the county and 
although the jury commissioners of Cook County do 
not rely solely upon the list of registered voters for 
making up their lists, the impression was current among 
many men in the city that the jury lists were made 
up entirely from those who were registered and that 
those who registered and failed to vote were called 
upon first for jury service. This belief acted as a 
powerful deterrent to voting among a certain class of 
business men. 


LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE OBSTACLES 107 


There are other features of the election system which 
led many citizens to ignore the election process.!. In 
certain parts of Chicago the political strife was once 
and is now occasionally of such a violent character that 
many persons are afraid to go near the polls. There 
was a time when nearly every election was featured by 
one or more gun battles. The memories still survive. 


In one of the river wards a young woman of Jewish extraction 
did not vote because she was afraid that “if she did not vote right 
she might be knocked off.” 

In a notorious section immediately north of the Loop, a tailoress 
of Swedish parentage was afraid to go to the polls because of the 
shootings and kidnapings that had occurred there. She also did 
not know about the registration dates. 

In one of the well-known Italian districts a middle- Raat street- 
car employee did not vote because he felt that there was too much 
violence countenanced at the polls. The diversity of languages 
spoken in the city led, he thought, to many of the misunderstandings 
which were at the bottom of some of these feuds. There were some 
actual instances found of intimidation of voters by the election 
officials or by the party workers. 

Mrs. Boest, a middle-aged woman of German parentage, was 
not registered because her husband had been restrained from 
voting by the election judges, and she declared that she did not 
try to vote under those circumstances. 


By far the greatest number of cases of intimidation 
were found in the colored settlement that had recently 
sprung up in the Ghetto district. The Democratic 
party organization in this district was strongly 
intrenched and resented the influx of colored Repub- 
lican voters. Consequently the party workers used 
various devices to persuade the negroes not to vote. 

1 A young woman living in the near North Side registered for the first 
time but did not vote because the judges refused to give her a ballot when 
she gave the new name she had acquired just before the election by marriage. 
She and the election officials were evidently unaware of that provision of the 


law which permitted a woman who had just been married to vote under her 
old name after taking an oath [City Election Act, Sec. 80]. 


108 : NON-VOTING 


The Democratic workers made application to have the 
names of registered negroes erased. ‘The negroes were 
then sent “‘suspect”’ notices which they had to answer 
in person before the Election Commissioners. 


A colored waitress thirty-five years of age declared that Chicago 
methods of preventing negroes from voting were less scrupulous 
than those in the South. Although in reply to a “‘suspect”’ notice, 
she had, in February, proved her qualifications to the satisfaction 
of the commissioners, a similar notice was sent to her in April. She 
felt that if the Republican leaders were unwilling to stop such dis- 
graceful practices that they would have to worry along without 
her vote. 

One colored porter who had voted in the primary was not per- 
mitted to vote in the election because the election officials said he 
had spoiled his primary ballot. He said that under such circum- 
stances he did not care anything about voting.! 


The administration of elections in a city the size of © 
Chicago is at best a difficult task. When this task is 
placed largely in the hands of two thousand election 
precinct boards chosen on the recommendation of the 
local party leaders, it is natural that there will be many 
complaints against the system. In the election under 
discussion, not only did the residence requirements, the 
voting hours, and the registration system keep many 
people from voting, but the failure of the local boards to 
perform their tasks efficiently had a depressing effect 
upon the number voting. 

1A colored woman thought that the election judges and clerks were 
crooked because they refused to allow her to vote. They wrote her a letter 
to appear before the Election Commissioners because they thought she was 
living in “open and notorious adultery” with a man whose name she did not 


even know. This woman appeared to be half-intoxicated when she made 
this remark. . 


CHAPTER V 
DISBELIEF IN WOMAN’S VOTING 


So far only those non-voters who attributed their 
abstention to some physical, legal, or administrative 
difficulty have been discussed. A wholly different 
type of non-voter is the one who disbelieves in voting. 
In this investigation many adult citizens were found 
who had no intentions of voting on April 3, 1923. The 
issues and personalities that figured in the election were 
responsible for this attitude among some of these 
citizens but there were others whose disbelief in voting 
was not confined to any particular election. 


TABLE XVI 
Per Cent of Total 
Reasons for Not Voting Number Non-Voters 
Interviewed 
Total giving disbelief in woman’s voting. . 468 8.8 
ig aks a RIDE SIRS Ye Re 414 7.8 
Rrseetsetia OF NUSHANG 4 6. spies oes ad sein eloa's 54 1.0 


Of the various disbeliefs in voting, disbelief in 
woman’s voting was the most frequently encountered 
in the canvass of non-voters made for this study. 
One out of every 1 nine female _non-voters-interviewed 
“admitted that she had not adjusted herself as yet to the 
idea of women voting. ‘The strength of this disbelief 
varied from a mild attitude of indifference toward 
women’s civic responsibilities to a confirmed convic- 
tion that women should keep out of politics altogether. 
Those opposed to woman suffrage did not lack confi- 
dence in the election process itself, but rather in their 
own ability to make themselves effective in politics. 

109 


110 NON-VOTING 


The investigators were told that woman’s place is in 
the home, that women have no business in politics, 
and that women ought to mind their own business and 
let the men folks take care of politics. On one-half 
of the schedules made out for those opposed to woman’s 
voting, some other reason in addition to disbelief in 
woman’s voting appeared. Most frequently this addi- 
tional cause of non-voting was general indifference. 
Women who did not believe in voting could hardly be 
expected to take any other attitude toward politics. In 
a few cases disbelief in woman’s voting was combined 
with disgust with politics or with ignorance and timid- 
ity regarding elections. Ignorance is a reasonable 
concomitant of a feminine inferiority complex, but 
the disgusted anti-suffragists adopted somewhat of a 
superior attitude toward “the dirty game of politics 
that the men are wont to play.’’ The some five hun- 
dred anti-suffragists who were interviewed throw some 
interesting light upon the operation of the Nineteenth 
Amendment to the United States Constitution. The 
testimony of the precinct committeemen agreed with 
the results of the interviews in giving considerable 
importance to disbelief in woman’s voting as a cause of 
non-voting among the women. In the survey made for 
this study disbelief in woman’s voting was only checked 
as a reason why adult female citizens do not register 
and vote, but some of the precinct committeemen 
wrote that this belief was found among men also. The 
effect of a man’s disbelief in woman’s voting was that 
his wife did not vote. ‘The women who did not vote 
because their husbands objected are discussed later. 


ANTI-SUFFRAGISTS 


A detailed analysis of the anti-suffragists met by the 
interviewers in this study shows they did not register 


DISBELIEF IN WOMAN’S VOTING 111 


except in rare cases, and that nearly all of them were 
devoid of any voting experience. They constituted 
one-fifth of the sample obtained of female habitual 
non-voters. ‘The ratio of anti-suffragists was highest 
among the female non-voters of German or Irish 
parentage. In actual numbers, the German anti- 
suffragists stand out above the other groups. If dis- 
belief in woman’s voting is taken into consideration 
together with objections of husband, the third highest 
ratio of anti-suffragists was found among the women of 
Italian extraction. While among those of foreign 
parentage, the native-born were less likely to display 
an anti-suffragist complex than were the foreign-born, 
the relative amount of disbelief in woman’s voting 
among the native-white female non-voters of native 
parentage was about the same as among those of all 
foreign stocks combined. 

Most of the anti-suffragists interviewed were 
between thirty and fifty years of age. Relatively, dis- 
belief in woman’s voting was a more important factor 
among the older-age groups than among the younger- 
age groups. In other words, woman suffrage had 
existed in Chicago for only ten years prior to 1923, 
and prejudices which had existed before its adoption 
were still found to some extent among the older women, 
but they were beginning to die out in the new genera- 
tion. 

Making allowances for the factor of age, it can be 
said that the ratio of anti-suffragists among the women 
who had been in the city less than ten years was rela- 
tively high. The newcomers to the city, most of them 
of foreign stock, had not yet adjusted themselves to the 
improved status of women in this country. 

There does not seem to be any pronounced differ- 
ence between the relative amount of disbelief in women’s 


112 NON-VOTING 


voting found in the various types of residential areas in 
the city. In both the best and the poorest sections 
about 11 per cent of the female non-voters interviewed 
were anti-suffragists. However, it should be remem- 
bered that there were many more female non-voters in 
the poor sections than in the well-to-do. In neighbor- 
hoods where rents ranged from $25 to $35 a month the 
ratios were somewhat higher than in either of the 
extremes, because these areas contained large numbers 
of Irish and German women. As might be expected, 
the anti-suffragists were largely housewives, with a 
sprinkling of domestic servants, small shopkeepers, 
and clerical workers among them. 

Nearly all of the anti-suffragists were not registered, 
most of them had not had any voting experience, and 
the great bulk of them were elderly foreigners, new to 
the city and living in poor circumstances. Nearly one- 
quarter of the housewives over forty years of age who 
had never voted gave disbelief in woman’s voting as 
the explanation of their abstention. 

Since the anti-suffrage attitude is the result of early 
home training, it will be useful to discuss a few anti- 
suffragists of each of the different nationalities in the 
city. It has already been pointed out that a fairly 
high proportion of those who disbelieved in woman’s 
voting were of German or Irish origin. The anti- 
suffragists of these two foreign stocks were founda in all 
parts of Chicago. 

In a precinct west of the Stockyards, Mrs. Rickel, who was 
born in Germany in 1870 and came to this country when she was 
eighteen, thought that since women began to vote the men have 
begun to lose all respect for them. She complained that even 
“‘when we go into the street cars they do not offer you a seat” 
and that they “‘just treat you rough.” 


Mrs. Rehm, an elderly woman of German parentage living in 
the Douglas Park section, said that a “‘woman is a flower for the 


DISBELIEF IN WOMAN’S VOTING 113 


man to look after.” She should not “spoil it and mingle in his 
affairs.” 

Another woman of German parentage living in a precinct west 
of Washington Park said she had never voted. As she put it: “I 
cannot understand why women should vote. The country is much 
worse since women were given the right to vote. Since woman 
suffrage, we have prohibition. The women have plenty to do in the 
home.” 

In a North Side German community, Mrs. Rathke, a young 
woman of German parentage, had a definite inferiority complex. 
She thought women should not “‘stick their noses in politics.” Her 
husband’s vote was sufficient. Only men and widows should vote. 
Women do not understand politics and so should not “butt in men’s 
work.” She was very determined that woman suffrage was wrong. 

In the northwestern part of the city an elderly Irish woman 
declared: ‘‘Women have no business voting. They would be better 
off staying at home and minding their own affairs. Women have 
no experience or knowledge in the field of voting.” 

In a South Side community where there was a greater sprinkling 
of Irish a middle-aged Irish woman was interviewed who declared 
that “women will run, then ruin the world.” She thought that all 
young men should marry ignorant girls whom they could run. 

In a congested Irish precinct south of the Stockyards, Mrs. 
Casey, aged fifty-three, born in Chicago of Irish parentage, declared 
that her husband got drunk on moonshine and beat her so she left 
him. She blames woman suffrage for this and for all other political 
evils. She herself was opposed to prohibition. 


There was also a considerable amount of feeling 
against woman suffrage among the women of foreign 
nationalities other than the Irish and German. There 
were Slavic and Nordic anti-suffragists. 


Mrs. Sobozak, a middle-aged Hungarian woman, greeted the 
interviewer with the following tirade: ‘‘ Was better times when 
women did not vote. As soon as women started to vote, things 
went sky high, even in the old country when women started to mix 
in the affairs of men folks there was a change for the worse. [If it 
was not for the women here, it would not be dry here. They 
spoiled the men’s liberty.” 

Mrs. Lobsewski, a Polish woman living back of the Stockyards, 
whose husband was naturalized in 1898, declared that she was always 


114 NON-VOTING 


too busy to vote. She could not spare the time and she thought 
that voting was a man’s duty and not a woman’s, as the men under- 
stood more about it. 

In a Bohemian settlement near the Chicago River, a young 
woman belonging to the second generation of Bohemians in this 
country said that her husband changed his party and she did not 
feel like canceling his vote so she quit. She voted in 1920. 

Mrs. §, a Danish woman living near Humboldt Park, had never 
voted because she thought the educated and leisure-class women 
only should vote. She could not see where poor wives like herself 
had the time to vote. 

In the Hyde Park district Mrs. Wolley, an old lady of eighty- 
three, thought that women should not vote—not because they 
were not capable, but because it was “‘just taking another responsi- 
bility from the shoulders of the men.”’ She thought men were get- 
ting more and more helpless, because women were helping to furnish 
a living and were going to help run the government. 

In the heart of the Irish district, near the Stockyards, a middle- 
aged English woman was found who had never voted because she 
disbelieved in the idea of women voting. She said: “All our family 
troubles are caused by our women folks getting away from the ways 
of living in previous and former years.” 


There were many confirmed anti-suffragists in the 
congested colored precinct canvassed in the Second 
Ward and in the other colored districts covered in this 
investigation. These women gave various reasons for 
not being interested in politics, from the mere belief that 
woman’s place is in the home to the belief that all social 
and political evils were traceable to woman suffrage. 


Mrs. Reese, a young colored woman who left Alabama in 1920, 
had never voted. Mrs. Reese said: “‘Our mothers and grand- 
mothers did not vote and they had much better control over the 
men of their time than the women of today.” She thought the 
feminine..control..superior..to,.politicalveontrol. 

Mrs. Annie Wesley, an attractive-looking middle-aged servant 
for a private family, wished to be given the seat on the street cars. 
She was very drastic in her denunciation of woman suffrage, and gave 
expression to the view that if women voted the men would lose their 
old-time regard for them. 


DISBELIEF IN WOMAN’S VOTING 115 


Mrs. Violet Elder, a middle-aged colored woman who came to 
Chicago from Mississippi in 1913, felt that her son was very wonder- 
ful and that he could vote for the family. She had had little 
schooling and did not care very much for woman suffrage, although 
she had voted in the 1920 presidential election. 

Perhaps the most interesting colored anti-suffragist was Mrs. 
Maria Almeda, a colored woman who was born in Missouri before 
the Civil War. She had lived in Chicago for forty-one years and 
thought that the women vote without knowing what they are doing, 
and that they have upset the world socially and politically. She 
said woman suffrage brought the prohibition amendment and had 
done more harm than good. It would have been wiser to have 
waited until the men were converted to the prohibition idea. She 
had very little schooling but was rather intelligent and informed on 
matters in her immediate vicinity. She was quite positive in her 
objection to woman suffrage. 

In a precinct immediately south of the Loop a young colored 
housewife declared: “‘I cannot see it in the Bible where women are 
supposed to vote and therefore I do not vote.” 


Disbelief in woman’s voting was not confined to the 
negroes and the whites of foreign parentage. ‘There 
was a respectable proportion of white women of native 
parentage who possessed the anti-suffragist attitude. 

In the Hyde Park district Mrs. Harris, a young wife living in a 
$65-a-month apartment, said that her husband’s vote was sufficient 
for the family. She added that if she were a widow or had property 
in her own right, she would vote. 

Mrs. Spalding, living in a $90-a-month apartment just outside 
a very wealthy section, said emphatically: ‘““[?’m a lady and I do not 
want to be anything else but a lady. I was raised in Virginia and 
promised mother not to break any of my promises. Mama always 
thought politics was men’s business.”’ 


If the some four hundred anti-suffragists interviewed 
in this city can be regarded as typical of the anti- 
suffragists in other urban communities, it may be said 
that disbelief in woman’s voting is an important but 
slowly vanishing factor in the civic life of an urban 
community. Already it is less significant among the 


116 NON-VOTING 


young women just past voting age. Perhaps little can 
be done to check the prejudices of the older confirmed 
anti-suffragists. The schools and civic bodies can lessen 
the amount of prejudice against woman’s voting that 
will be found in the electorate of tomorrow. 


OBJECTIONS OF HUSBAND 


The women who did not vote because of the objec- 
tions of their husbands were first classified with the 
women who disbelieved in woman suffrage. The dis- 
tinction between these two reasons for not voting is 
difficult to draw. A woman might say that she did not 
believe in woman’s voting. In some cases it was almost 
impossible to find the basis of this attitude. The 
woman might have independent convictions upon the 
subject or she might be deferring to the judgment of 
the men in her family. Women were more apt to 
express a general attitude of indifference toward elec- 
tions than to admit that they did not vote because their 
husbands did not want them to vote. However, out 
of the 5,000 non-voters, 54 women interviewed by the 
investigators said frankly (or their husbands said it for 
them) that they did not vote because of objections on 
the part of the male head of the family. Nearly one- 
quarter of these cases were linked with general indiffer- 
ence toward all elections. The indifference in these 
cases was a minor or resultant factor. While the 
woman who does not vote because her husband objects 
resembles the anti-suffragist to the extent that she 
has no intention of voting, she differs from the usual 
anti-suffragist in that her attitude is strongly tinged 
with a fear complex. As one woman tersely put it: 
“IT am not looking for a divorce.” 

Like the women who did not believe that members 
of their sex should vote, the women who gave in to the 


x 


DISBELIEF IN WOMAN’S VOTING 117 


prejudices of their husbands on the matter of voting 
constituted a more homogeneous group than some of the 
other-reason groups discussed. None of them were 
registered and only a few had had voting experience.! 
The voting experience of these few obviously had unfor- 
tunate consequences. Otherwise there is no explana- 
tion for their attitude toward voting. It is clear from 
this that objections of husband as a cause of non-voting 
was of greatest importance among the female habitual 
non-voters. 

Objections of husband was found to be an impor- 
tant cause of non-voting among the Italian, the Ger- 
man, the Slavic, and the colored women. It explained 
nearly 5 per cent of cases of non-voting found among the 
female citizens of Italian parentage. It was of little 
relative importance among the female non-voters of 
Irish or native parentage. Less than 1 per cent of the 
native white female non-voters of native parentage 
gave objections of husband as a reason for not voting. 
Two per cent of the female non-voters of foreign parent- 
age accounted for their abstention on the ground that 
their husbands took an adverse view toward their 
participation in politics. Twenty-seven of these indi- 
viduals, or two-thirds of the group, were foreign-born, 
having acquired their citizenship through the naturali- 
zation of their husbands. One might conclude from 
this that the status of women among the foreign-born 
was considerably below the American standard, and 
that there was some justification for the recent changes 
made in the naturalization laws in so far as they affected 
foreign-born women who married citizens or whose 
husbands later became naturalized.2 However, the 


1Qne case, obviously misclassified, was put in the registered column. 


2 Act of September 22, 1922; 42 Stat. L., Pt. 1, sec. 6, p. 1022 (The 
Cable Act). 


118 NON-VOTING 


actual figures are hardly large enough to warrant any 
sweeping generalizations. It is interesting to note that 
husbands of all nationalities, American included, were 
found who objected to their wives’ voting. 

Among those who gave objections of husband as 
the cause of their non-voting there was a smaller pro- 
portion of women of advanced years, that is, women 
over forty years of age, than there was among the anti- 
suffragists. This probably means that many elderly 
foreign-born women had come to accept their husbands’ 
attitude toward woman suffrage as their own, and 
consequently it did not occur to them to say that their 
failure to vote was due to their marital status. At any 
rate, there did not seem to be any direct connection 
between the factor of age and objections of husband as 
a reason for not voting. The age distribution of the 
women under discussion was about the same as that 
of the total group of female non-voters interviewed. 
The same can be said for the mobility factor. The 
women who were submissive to their husbands in 
political affairs were of all ages and some of them were 
old residents of foreign colonies where there was little 
chance for them to assume an independent attitude. 

The position of women in the poorer residential dis- 
tricts of the city was undoubtedly less independent than 
it was in the well-to-do residential districts. This fact 
is reflected in the different proportions of female non- 
voters in the good and the poor neighborhoods who 
found voting an impossibility because of their husbands’ 
objections. In residential areas where prevailing rents 
were over $50 a month, less than 1 per cent, and in dis- 
tricts where rents were under $50 a month, nearly 2 per . 
cent, of the non-voting women were so situated. This 
fact tends to corroborate the conclusion above that the 
foreign-born women who were old residents had lived 


DISBELIEF IN WOMAN’S VOTING 119 


under such conditions that they had little opportunity 
to assume an independent attitude toward public affairs. 
Three-quarters of the women who gave the reason 
under discussion lived in squalid flats renting for 
around $20 a month. 

The married women who did not vote because they 
feared their husbands’ displeasure were largely of 
foreign parentage. If native-born they were young, 
and regardless of their nativity, they were living in 
poor economic circumstances. The chances were 7 
to 1 that they never had any voting experience. 

Since objection of husband was found as a reason 
of non-voting only among groups where women were 
given a fixed status in the home, it will be profitable to 
consider a few individual cases found among each of the 
different nationalities. The proportion of Italian adult 
female citizens who did not vote because their husbands 
objected was larger than that of most any other nation- 
ality. On this account three typical non-voting Italian 
women will be discussed first. 


Mrs. Scleso, a middle-aged Italian woman, who came to the 
city twenty-seven years ago and settled in a cheap flat in the Ghetto 
district, was not registered because she felt that the “‘polls was a 
bum place.”’ Her husband believed that women would be taken in 
the booths and “‘shown how to vote wrong.” Since one had “‘to 
show women how to do in the polls,” he did not “‘want her to vote.”’ 

Mrs. Bruno, who lived over the store which her husband owned, 
said that she could not go with her husband to vote on account of 
business. Her husband said, “Unless she go with me, she might 
not vote right.” 

Mrs. Escalono, in an adjoining precinct, was an elderly Italian 
lady who came to the city forty years ago when she was twenty 
years of age. Her husband said: “I wouldn’t vote if she did—I’m 
not going to have people coming around her.” 


Next to the Italian women, the German and the 


Bohemian women seemed to be the most amenable to 
their husbands’ suggestions. 


120 NON-VOTING 


In a cosmopolitan section of the Stockyards, a middle-aged 
German woman, who had been in the city for twenty years and 
who had become a citizen through the naturalization of her husband, 
said that she did not vote because her husband objected. He told 
her she had enough to do at home not to mix in politics. He “don’t 
believe in women voting.” 

In the ward directly south of the Stockyards, Mrs. Hess said 
that she was not opposed to voting herself, but she believed that 
the husband is the head of the family and she accepted his 
dictum. 

Mrs. Olson, a German woman who lived in the northwestern 
part of the city, found that both her husband and her son objected 
to her voting. She declared that she was not interested either. 

A young native-born woman of Bohemian parentage, who lived 
in a flat near the Stockyards which rented for $16 a month, said 
her husband objected to her voting. He had said to her: ““Woman’s 
place is at home. Women only go to the polls to have fun and they 
just hang around and klatch.” 


Many of the colored women who had recently moved 
from the South were found to be submissive to their 
husbands in political affairs. 


Near the largest Italian district in the city, a colored woman 
did not vote because her husband would not allow her to. He said 
that she was so ignorant that despite his instructions she would 
probably be urged into voting the wrong ticket by Democratic 
workers. His fears were based partly on the fact that he lived in a 
strong Democratic ward. 

Mrs. Anderson, who came to Chicago from Kentucky in 1919 
and began to work as a day laundress, said that her husband was | 
disgusted with politics and quarreled about it so she did not vote. 
She added that she might vote if her husband had a different 
attitude. 

Mrs. Carpenter, a middle-aged colored woman who moved 
from Mississippi to Chicago in 1913, was not opposed to politics 
but she did not know anything about voting and was not interested. 
Her husband objected to her voting and refused to admit party 
workers who came to interest her. He always voted. She was a 
very quiet woman and her husband did most of the talking. She 
had a tolerant attitude and appeared to be the more intelligent 
of the two, 


DISBELIEF IN WOMAN’S VOTING Ha ie 


Some of the native white women of native parentage 
who refrained from voting because their husbands 
objected were found in good residential districts but 
none were discovered in the wealthiest neighborhoods. 


Immediately west of the Gold Coast section on the North Side, 
one woman refused to vote because while she respected and tre- 
mendously admired her husband, she heartily disagreed with him 
on almost every issue. Since he was a “self-made man” who 
made all the money she spent, and since she did not even in return 
give children, she did not feel that she could vote in opposition to 
him, even though she always had in mind one for whom she would 
vote. 

In a moderately prosperous part of the Hyde Park section, a 
young woman was found who had never voted because her husband 
would not let her. She said that “‘he didn’t think women had 
any business with the franchise.’’ Since she was not keenly inter- 
ested herself, she decided to secure marital peace at the expense of 
public duty. 

In a North Side district west of the Chicago River, a young 
woman of native parentage did not approve of woman’s voting 
because her husband held the view that “‘women had enough to 
do taking care of their home and children.”’ 

The husband of a woman living in a cheap flat in one of the 
downtown cosmopolitan districts said that he did not want his wife 
to vote. He declared that he would not vote again because of the 
rotten politicians. He said that his “‘ancestors came here three 
hundred years ago and he thought that Americans should do some- 
thing to prevent foreigners from getting control.’ His contribution 
to the ‘““America for Americans”’ movement was the cancellation of 
two “‘American”’ votes. 


The men of foreign parentage who objected to their 
wives’ voting were brought up in communities where 
women were not given equal political and social rights 
with the men. The advent of woman suffrage in 
Germany, Italy, and Czecho-Slovakia came long after 
the tide of immigration from these countries to America 
reached its full height. The newness of woman suffrage 
in this country accounts for the survival of these old 


122 NON-VOTING 


prejudices. ‘There can be no question that the under- 
mining of these prejudices against woman’s participa- 
tion in politics will mean a position of greater inde- 
pendence for woman in the home. Agitation toward 
such an end could be profitably directed against the 
preconceptions of both the men and the women holding 
the anti-suffrage view. 


CHAPTER VI 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS AND OTHER 
DISBELIEFS IN VOTING 


It is those who are disgusted with politics that pre- 
sent the hardest problem of political control. If a large 
proportion of the citizens of voting age have no confi- 
dence in the electoral process, then one of the pillars of 
modern political institutions is laid on a shaky founda- 
tion. However, the disbeliefs discussed in this chap- 
ter were not all of a permanent character. Many of 
those who were disgusted with politics had specific 
grievances against the government. Those who did 


TABLE XVII 
Per Cent of 
Reasons for Not Voting Number sae rea 
viewed 


Total giving disgust with politics and other 


disbeliefs in voting..................: 476 8.9 
Piceviat win politics) 4... i). sa.) Sujpieae es 230 4.3 
Brieust Witn, OWN party... . 2.6. eee eee 105 2.0 
Belief that one vote counts for nothing....... 79 1.5: 
Belief that ballot box is corrupted............ 40 0.7 
Disbelief in all political action............... 22 0.4 


not vote because they were disgusted with their own 
party were reconciled to their party’s program by the 
next election. Although small in numbers, the non- 
voters who believed that one vote counts for nothing, 
that the ballot box was corrupted, or who disbelieved 
in all political action, challenged the existing electoral 
system. 


123 


124 NON-VOTING 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 


Although disgust with politics did not appear upon 
the questionnaire which was sent out to the precinct 
committeemen, the additional comments made by 
some of the committeemen in their replies showed that 
this attitude was an important cause of non-voting in 
the city. Among all the groups of foreign origin were 
considerable numbers of persons who were bitter at 
being deprived of their alcoholic beverages and who 
could not understand why the favorable vote on public- 
policy referendum on light wines and beers in Novem- 
ber, 1922, had not alleviated the situation. One of the 
committeemen expressed this attitude as follows: 


This section of the city comprises a class of people from all 
sections of foreign countries. When landing in this country they 
believed they would have all kinds of personal liberty, but that was 
taken away from them when they were prohibited from drinking 
their beverages. At the last election in which light wines and beer 
were considered the vote showed this district wanted them, average 
30 to1. When the legislature refused to recognize this, they showed 
general indifference by not voting. 


While there were those who resented President Hard- 
ing’s attitude on such questions as prohibition enforce- 
ment and the bonus, there were also those who failed 
to vote because of disgust with local politics. A 
committeeman from the Stockyards district wrote: 
“People claim it is useless to vote on account of no- 
services from the Board of Local Improvements and the 
Department of Streets and Alleys.’ The alleged graft 
on the School Board led many others to disregard local 
politics. 

What the party experts said about the existence of a 
widespread attitude of disgust toward politics was 
confirmed by face-to-face contacts with the non-voters 
themselves. Some persons when approached on the sub- 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 125 


ject of non-voting grew eloquent in their denunciation 
of politics and all politicians. One woman harangued 
the investigator for over twenty minutes on the need 
for political reform and on the lack of politicians 
that kept their promises. Instances of the various 
special grievances against the government and the 
parties which were mentioned in the reports of the 
precinct committeemen were found in all quarters of 
the city. Among the reasons given for disgust with 
politics were the following: ‘‘AIl politicians are crooks, 
or they soon become so.” “‘It is useless to try to put 
out the bad and put in the good, all are susceptible to 
the evil influence and political machines.”’ ‘‘There is 
too much mud-slinging and fighting among the candi- 
dates wher one is as good and as bad as another.” 
“People work and worry and run to the polls to elect 
somebody who does nothing for them after he gets in.” 
**Politics are controlled by the riffraff; the men higher 
up are unconcerned.” ‘Rents are high and streets and 
alleys are dirty whether one party or another is in.” 
*“*All politicians are in the business for what they can 
. get out of it; there is not an honest politician left.” 
There were many who denounced the _ prohibition 
amendment and the failure of the bonus, or who grew 
excited over the inefficiency of the local officials, and 
there were not a few who were disappointed and 
disgruntled office-seekers. 

Of the 5,000 non-voters, about one-twentieth gave 
disgust with politics as the reason or one of the reasons 
why they did not vote. In less than one-half of these 
cases, disgust with politics was the only reason given. 
Where some other reason was given in addition, the 
chances were even that it would be general indiffer- 
ence. Indifference in these cases was quite clearly a 
resultant factor, and it had to give way on all the 


126 NON-VOTING 


cross-tabulations to disgust as a leading factor. The 33 
combinations of disgust and belief that one vote counts 
for nothing were treated in much the same way. When 
disgust was combined with ignorance, with disbelief in 
woman’s voting, or with belief that the ballot box is 
corrupted, the cases were harder to handle. The last- 
named attitude is simply a special kind of disgust with 
politics, but the first two attitudes do not necessarily 
go along with disgust. However, it is quite possible 
that an anti-suffragist or an ignorant non-voter might 
also be disgusted with politics. 

Over 4 per cent of the corrected sample of non-voters 
gave disgust with politics as the reason for their not 
voting. On the basis of the survey of non-voters made 
for this study, it may be estimated that 5 per cent of 
the male non-voters had an aversion toward politics. 
Of the 230 cases used in the final analysis, nearly three- 
quarters had not registered and about one-quarter had 
never voted. The highest ratio of disgusted non-voters 
(7.2 per cent) was found among the males who were not 
registered. Most of these had not voted since 1920, 
and over one-quarter of them had never voted. The 
fact that so many of this type of non-voter were not 
registered indicates that their anti-political attitude 
was deep seated. 

Disgust with politics was found to be relatively more 
important among the Slavic and negro groups than 
among the other racial groups represented in the sample 
obtained of non-voters in the city. It is probable that 
the antagonistic attitude toward politics found among 
the Poles, the Czechs, Jugo-Slavs, and the negroes 
arose out of the conditions which these groups found in 
their city environment rather than out of any special 
racial characteristic or training. Except in the case of 
~ the Bohemians, among the native-born of foreign par- 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 127 


entage disgust was more prevalent than among the 
foreign-born. The disgusted male non-voters came 
largely from the poorest sections of the city where such 
things as dirty alleys were not uncommon sights and 
where political jobs were very much in demand. Such 
complaints were heard among the colored non-voters as: 
‘Rich white folks are managing everything and it does 
not make any difference whether poor people vote or 
not’; “Politics, simply a means by which the rich 
exploit the poor, the strong exploit the weak”; and 
‘Politics benefit the rich only; the poor suckers get 
nothing from any candidate or party.’?> Many Poles 
were found who thought that the city did nothing for 
them, that the politicians were interested in “graft and 
corruption”’ and left the alleys in filth, and that the 
poor people’s liberties were taken away. 

A great amount of disgust with politics was found 
among the native white women of native parentage 
living in apartment and residential areas where rents 
were over $50 a month. These women were disgusted 
because the government failed to live up to the high 
standards which they had set for it. Their discontent 
may be interpreted as a sign of the growing civic con- 
sciousness among the women. To be sure, non-voting 
is not a rational mode for expressing this discontent, 
but these women are searching for a remedy of present 
unsatisfactory conditions and that in itself is a salutary 
sign. They demand a more efficient administration 
of the school system and of the other welfare activities 
of the government. 

Disgust with politics was an attitude which was more 
commonly found among men who were over fifty years 
of age and among women who were over forty. Among 
the native whites of native parentage and among those 
of German parentage the difference in the amount of 


128 NON-VOTING 


dissatisfaction with politics among the young and the 
old non-voters was striking. The youthfulness of the 
colored non-voters who had had bitter political experi- 
ences in the South tended to bring up the general aver- 
age of disgusted young voters in the city. In spite of 
the fact that 64 out of the 230 disgusted non-voters had 
never voted, it may be said that aversion to politics 
developed largely among those who had had some 
experience with political affairs. A cynic might say 
that a few years’ experience with Chicago politics would 
develop a disgusted attitude in almost anyone. Table 
XI shows that only 3 per cent of the non-voters who 
had been in the city for less than twenty years were 
disgusted with politics as compared with 5 per cent of 
those who had been in the city for over twenty years and 
7 per cent of those who had been in the city between 
forty and fifty years. A greater amount of disgust with 
politics among the older residents was also found among 
the white adult citizens who had never voted. 

Occupation was another factor which had something 
to do with the development of an antagonistic attitude 
toward politics. It was closely related to economic 
status as shown by rent. While over one-half of the 
sample of disgusted non-voters used for detailed statis- 
tical analysis were housewives, the greatest amount of 
disgust with politics was found among the laborers, 
skilled and unskilled. The smallest amount of disgust 
relative to the other causes of non-voting was found 
among the business men and the professional men. 
Among the latter only 1 per cent were found to be in a 
state of irritation regarding politics. 

From this general analysis, it may be concluded that 
disgust with politics stimulated a large amount of non- 
voting among native male citizens of negro or foreign- 
white parentage who had lived in the poorest sections of 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 129 


the city for over twenty years engaged in skilled or 
unskilled work, and among the middle-aged housewives 
who had lived for the same length of time in apartment 
or flat areas. This generalization applies to the adult 
white citizens who have never voted as well as to all 
non-voters. The adult colored habitual non-voters who 
explained their abstention on the ground of disgust with 
politics were likely to be in their twenties or thirties 
and residents of Chicago for less than ten years. Many 
of the negroes who had come to the city within the last 
ten years were disgusted with politics because of their 
experiences in the South. 

A few case studies will bring out clearly the nature of 
the grudge which these non-voters had against the 
government. Some felt offended at the prohibition 
enforcement and anti-bonus policies of the national 
administration. 


Mr. K, born in Chicago forty years ago of Polish parents, said 
that he did not register because the President vetoed the bonus. 
When the United States entered the world-war, he had volunteered 
immediately. He lost one brother in the aviation service and his 
wife in the nursing service. He was working among the suffering 
and disabled soldiers at the time of the election. He saw many die 
of want after suffering, while so many made money here. Then 
they let the war prisoners out. The “first over” were not the 
**first returned” as promised. He felt that the government should 
give paid-up insurance. Because of his grievances against the 
government he had not voted since 1916. 

A negro from the most congested colored section of the city, 
another world-war veteran, born in Alabama twenty-seven years ago 
and a resident of Chicago for the last six years, took a surly attitude 
toward politics. He was all worked up because of the attitude 
toward the government hospital at Tuskegee. He had never voted 
and ‘‘cared nothing about politics because they only benefit the 
rich.” 

Mr. Sam Reda, of the near North Side of Chicago, born in the 
city thirty years ago of Italian parents, declared that there was “‘no 
use to vote for a president.” “After fighting, have to pay war tax, 


130 NON-VOTING 


got no bonus—prohibition when I came back.” Now he is a 
mechanic and has no time to vote. He does not care especially to 
vote, for candidates promise so much before they are elected and 
then they fulfil none of them. If he does not vote, he will have no 
hard feelings against himself for having assisted in the election. 

A sixty-five-year-old clerk of one of the Loop hotels could not 
find words to vent his spleen against the Eighteenth Amendment. 
He said that since liquor was taken away, “‘ government is becoming 
amockery.” ‘“‘Money buys anything.” ‘“‘When the top is corrupt, 
they are all corrupt.” “Since individual rights have been taken 
away, one must take moonshine poison.’ He and his three sons 
were not going to vote any more until prohibition was changed. 

A Polish woman, aged fifty-six, who came to the Stockyards 
district forty years ago, gave expression in her native tongue to 
similar sentiments. She was at first loath to talk because she 
feared the interviewers had come to make her vote, but the Polish 
interpreter overcame her misgivings. This woman declared that 
the saloons should be open, for now people are killing themselves 
with liquor. Her boys formerly did not want her to vote, but now 
they do not care. She would vote, if they would put whiskey in. 
She does not drink, now they drink poison. Up to the present time, 
she had never voted or registered. 


Many of the disgusted non-voters had a grouch 
against some local governing agency. In the poorer 
sections of the city some complained that it was useless 
to vote on account of no services from the Bureau of 
Streets. 


A young Bohemian, who lived back of the Stockyards and who 
worked as foreman in a large mail-order house, explained in detail 
how he felt on this matter. He regarded the politicians as a “bunch 
of crooks.’”? There was no use to vote because the “‘alleys were not 
cleaned.’”’ The flies were so bad that the screens did not keep them 
out. Rats also came from the alleys. These pests carry disease. 
He, like many, felt it of no use to vote. 

A young Italian woman from the Ghetto district made the same 
complaint in the following words: ‘‘ Taxes and rents are high. The 
alley has not been cleaned twice in the summer and the children 
have no place to play but in the streets and alleys. It does no good 
to vote. You are always told to see somebody else and nothing is 
done.” 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 131 


An Austrian woman gave the following explanation of her — 
grievance: “‘Candidates are willing to promise anything but when 
they get into office they break their promises. They will not remove 
rubbish from the alley. There are seven members in this family 
who will not vote until something is done about this.” 


The Bureau of Streets was not the only city agency 
which was denounced by the disgruntled non-voters. 
The schools, the police, and the courts came in for their 
share of the vilification. 


A native American woman, living in an $85-a-month apartment 
on the North Side, was very antagonistic toward the politicians, 
particularly because of the school administration. She was very 
angry because her six-year-old child had to go to school at 8:00 a.m. 
on account of the lack of schoolhouses. She herself had a good 
education and seemed interested in public affairs, but she had not 
voted since the presidential election of 1920. 

Another woman, born in Chicago of German parentage and 
occupying a house of her own, was disgusted because the police 
had done nothing about the robbery of her home and the four 
robberies of her husband’s trucks. She asserted that she was 
insulted by one desk sergeant. 

A naturalized Italian who previously had great faith in the 
government of the country and took interest in all elections lost 
several thousand dollars through an agent in a deal for a flat build- 
ing and lost the case in court. He thinks the judge was bribed 
and that there was no such thing as justice for a poor man. He 
declared that lawyers were especially dishonest and that he would 
not vote for any man. 


Another branch of the city government whose mal- 
administration immediately affects the attitude of many 
citizens toward voting is the Board of Assessors. 


An elderly lady, a native of Indiana but an old resident of Chi- 
cago, declared she had never voted because all politicians seemed 
dishonest to her. Many folks got lower taxes by “‘seeing” a 
politician. This was a practice which she would never countenance. 
However, she felt no responsibility to do anything about it herself. 


There were some who looked for an immediate and 
tangible reward for voting. When they failed to receive 


132 NON-VOTING 


this reward, they became non-voters. In the rooming 
districts in Chicago where the number of transients is 
large, money was commonly given for votes on election 
day. The disappointed office-seeker was frequently a 
non-voter. In the survey made of 5,000 non-voters in 
the city all kinds of disgruntled job hunters were found. 
Not only is the disappointed office-seeker a non-voter, 
but his family and frequently his friends also become 
non-voters. Offices are not the sole favors which some 
people think they have a right to demand as a reward 
for faithful voting. The granting of a sign, building, 
and other permits, and the placing of orphans in institu- 
tions were among the favors expected as a recompense 
for loyalty at the polls. If these favors were not forth- 
coming, then the vote was withheld. 


A poorly educated colored woman, who moved to Chicago from 
Georgia in 1920, made the remark: “If you vote, they’ll pay you.” 
She added that a friend said they’d pay her and when they didn’t 
she wouldn’t vote any more. They’d always paid her husband 
and she had heard most of the voters around say that they were 
paid. ‘Toward the end of the interview, she put in the saving 
remark: “‘No use to vote only for money unless you know for 
what you're voting.” 

An elderly Polish woman, living in the steel-mills district of 
South Chicago, was a non-voter in the city election because the 
city refused to give her husband employment. He is old and unable 
to do strenuous work, so she felt that the city ought to give him 
street or park work. She declared that she would not vote any 
more because the city showed so little interest in her welfare. 

When a middle-aged Italian laborer was asked why he did not 
vote, he replied in fairly understandable English: “‘Why should I 
vote when the alderman refused to give me a job? Therefore, I 
forbid my wife from voting also.” 

In the Ghetto district, a Russian Jew who had lived in the 
neighborhood for over twenty years, declared himself to be a habitual 
non-voter. He was disgusted with politics, because of the refusal 
of the boss to give his son a job. He felt that ten years of loyalty 
to the local boss was deserving of material recognition. 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 133 
‘ 


There were disgusted non-voters who thought that 
the candidates were equally bad, or that the men elected 
never remembered the promises they made during the 
campaign, or that the whole system was rotten. In 
some cases, the disgust was couched in general terms. 


In the colored district, a junk man, born in Tennessee thirty- 
six years ago, a resident of Chicago for the last six years, said: “Day 
by day the world is getting worse and worse. Down South you 
can’t vote and you haven’t got anything; up here you can vote but 
still you haven’t got anything. What’s the use?” 

In one of the better white residential districts on the South 
Side, one of the interviewers brought back the following report 
from a middle-aged woman: ‘“‘When I called on Mrs. W she 
denounced the political situation and the politicians in as strong 
terms as it is possible for a lady to express herself. I timed my 
visit at the house which lasted for some twenty-odd minutes. 
During this time Mrs. W emphasized strongly the need for political 
reform and the fact that politicians did not keep their promises. 
Her closing remark was: ‘There are six votes in this house, 
and not a single vote of the six will ever be cast again until some- 
thing is done for us before election time comes around.’ She was 
willing to trade these six votes for a little relief from the heavy 
taxes.” 

A young woman living on the North Side, whose relatives were 
almost all down at the City Hall holding public office, said that she 
never voted and never intended to vote, adding the following frank 
statement of her belief: “Some people may say that I am not 
patriotic, that I am not fulfilling my duties as a citizen by not voting, 
but I don’t care. I know enough about politics and I haven’t 
any desire to vote for so-called honest men who are not against 
pulling off deals for their own special benefit or for some of their 
friends. If you’re in with the crowd and have a drag, as they say, 
you can get almost*anything you want, but if you’re an honest 
citizen without political friends you have to pay the price.” 

Especially interesting was the comment of a colored woman, 
who had always lived in Virginia before coming to the city five 
years ago. She and her husband felt that none of the candidates 
for alderman and mayor were worth bothering with. She did not 
register because she was disgusted with the whole thing. She 
was especially wrought up over seeing in the paper that her own 


134 NON-VOTING 


party candidate received a woman newspaper reporter in pajamas. 
She thought it was horrible. 


The disgruntled attitude found among so many non- 
voters frequently had a wholly irrational foundation. 
Some people were inclined to attribute all their woes to 
politics. 

One Bohemian woman said the reason why she did not vote 
this year was that she was “‘sore.” She went to register because a 
woman came and got her. She had just finished knitting a pair of 
socks for her husband. They were worth three dollars and when 
she came back the dog had torn them all up. She was so “‘sore”’ 
she would not vote. 


From these case studies it cannot be concluded that 
the disgusted non-voter is always the most rational of 
human beings. If most of these individuals could be 


brought to take a broader view toward politics, their | 


grievances would disappear. It is not inconceivable 
that those who have little faith in the efficacy of 
positive political action at one time may become 
enthusiastic voters later on. 


DISGUST WITH OWN PARTY 


Disgust with own party is classed as a disbelief in 
voting, but it must be distinguished from the other 
disbeliefs which are discussed in this chapter. It is 
not a disbelief in voting as such, but rather a disbelief 
in voting at a particular election. The person who 
abstains from voting because he is disgusted with his 
own party will probably be a voter at the next election. 
Since a disgusted attitude toward one of the two major 
parties is a product of a definite time-and-space situa- 
tion, the discussion of this factor in the Chicago mayor- 
alty election of April 3, 1923, will have less general 
significance than the discussion of some of the other 
factors. However, there are always some disaffected 


ee 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 135 


elements within such composite bodies as the two major 
parties in any large American city, and the description 
of the attitudes of the members of such an element in a 
given situation may throw some light upon urban 
party systems. 

On the basis of the corrected sample it can be esti- 
mated that 2 per cent of non-voters in the Chicago 
mayoralty election of 1923 were “disgusted’’ Repub- 
licans or Democrats. Since the factional strife within 
the Republican party was much more bitter than that 
within the Democratic, practically all this group were 
disgusted Republicans. Many Democratic committee- 
men testified as to the ease with which they won over 
Republicans or induced them to cut into their candi- 
dates’ strength by remaining away from the polls. The 
persons who did not vote because they were disgusted 
with their own party constitute a fairly homogeneous 
group. Disgust with own party was much more 
likely to be the sole reason for not voting than any of 
the other reasons so far discussed with the possible 
exception of home-nursing duties. Of the 105 disgusted 
partisans, one-fifth gave more than the single reason, 
and with these few general indifference was the popular 
secondary reason. Their “indifference” was the result 
of their grudge against their own party, and conse- 
quently it was rated as a minor reason. 

Inasmuch as persons do not have party affiliations 
until they become voters, disgust with own party was 
found as a cause of non-voting only among those who 
had had voting experience. Disgust with own party 
was also confined, except in very rare cases, to those who 
were registered. It was a more important factor among 
the men than among the women because the women 
had had the franchise for a comparatively short time 

1 See below, p. 203. 


136 NON-VOTING 


and had not developed the same attachments to a given 
party that were held by many of the men. Of the 
total sample of non-voters, over 3 per cent of the men 
and about 1.4 per cent of the women said that they 
objected to their own party candidate, and they 
objected to voting for the other party candidate. 
When those who were registered but did not vote in 
the April election are considered alone, the disparity 
between the percentages of the men and women who 
gave this explanation of their non-voting was not so 
great, the percentages being respectively 5 and 4. 
Most of these persons voted last in the November elec- 
tion, 1922. 

In contrast to some of the other non-voters dis- 
cussed, those non-voters who explained their absten- 
tion on the ground of disgust with their own party 
belonged only to certain racial and nationalistic groups 
which were disaffected by local political situations in 
Chicago in the spring of 1923. The negroes, whose 
loyalty to the Republican party can easily be traced 
to the events of the Civil War and the reconstruc- 
tion period, were disappointed in the selection which 
their party made of a mayoralty candidate. ‘Twenty- 
one per cent of all the male colored non-voters in- 
terviewed voiced their disgust with the Republican 
candidate and stated that they could not bring them- 
selves to vote for a Democrat. This percentage is 
doubled when the male colored non-voters who were 
registered in 1923 are considered alone. Fifteen per 
cent of all the female colored non-voters and about 
44 per cent of the colored women who were registered 
objected to their own party candidate. Needless to 
say, disgust with own party was the most important 
cause of non-voting among the negroes at this elec- 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 137 


tion.! Two-thirds of the sample of non-voters who were 
disgusted with their own party were negroes, and the 
remaining third was made up principally of citizens of 
Italian, English, and Scandinavian stock. Thirteen 
Italian-Americans were found who did not vote in the 
mayoralty election because the candidate of their own 
race had been eliminated in the primary.? These 
citizens constituted 4 per cent of the total number of 
non-voters of Italian stock. None of the Irish or Slavic 
non-voters gave disgust with their own party as a 
reason for their failure to participate in the mayoralty 
election. 

While about 60 per cent of the non-voters who were 
disgusted with their own party were under forty years 
of age, it cannot be said that this attitude was more 
characteristic of the young citizens than it was of the 
old. All the negro and the Italian non-voters inter- 
viewed in this study were much younger than any of 
the groups. As compared with the norm of their own 
groups, the disgruntled party men of colored or Italian 
parentage were rather old. At least a higher propor- 
tion of the older than of the younger negroes gave this 
reason. 

Since the negroes and the Italians were both com- 
paratively new to the city, it is not surprising that three- 
fourths of the non-voters under discussion had lived 
in the city for less than twenty years. Most of the 


1 The vote in the Second Ward (almost solidly colored) was as follows: 


Dever (D.) | Lueder (R.)|Millard (R.)} Barasa (R.)|Litzinger (R.) ss 








Primary..... 939 2,670 463 6,298 1,032 6 
Election..... 8,276 SI A Ne laa Te «A ta AY I a ACN Pe ce Us Spee 373 


2 Judge Barasa, of Italian origin, was an unsuccessful candidate for 
mayor in the Republican primaries. 


138 NON-VOTING 


negroes interviewed had lived in the city for less than 
ten years. In congested sections prevailing rents were 
around $15 a month. In the better colored districts 
rents ranged from $30 to $65 a month. The same was 
true for the Italians. A large proportion of the dis- 
gusted partisans were unskilled laborers or domestic 
servants who “roomed out.” 

Inasmuch as disgust with one’s own party is an 
attitude which is found under special circumstances, 
a few case studies will be particularly useful in trying 
to understand how this factor operates in a given 
election. In the Chicago mayoralty election of April, 
1923, William Hale Thompson, mayor of the city from 
1915 to 1923, was not a candidate for re-election. This 
fact induced many of the colored voters to stay away 
from the polls. Mayor Thompson had posed as a 
friend of the negroes, his floor leader in the City Council 
was a colored alderman from the Second Ward, and 
there were many Thompson admirers in all the colored 
sections of the city. These admirers felt that they 
would injure their political benefactor if they voted, so 
a large proportion of them remained away from the 
polls, and many of them quietly supported the Demo- 
cratic candidate. Arthur Lueder, the Republican 
candidate and postmaster of Chicago, did not arouse 
any particular enthusiasm among the colored voters. 
Many colored politicians talked at the churches during 
the campaign, and criticized the attitude of the press 
toward the colored people. ‘The implication was that 
no colored person could afford to vote for any candidate 
indorsed by such newspapers. Stories were circulated 
that Lueder was receiving the support of some 50,000 
Klansmen in the campaign, and the negroes quickly 
inferred that he was connected with the Ku Klux Klan 
in some way. ‘There were other stories current among 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 139 


the postal employees that the segregation of negroes in 
the post-office had been brought about by the party 
candidate. All of these stories tended to create a 
sentiment among the colored voters which was not 
conducive to voting. Most of the negro voters in 
Chicago were conservative, and some would not con- 
sider voting for a candidate bearing the Democratic 
label under any circumstances. Their experiences with 
the Democratic party in the South were too recent for 
most of them to overcome their prejudices. Con- 
sequently, when the word went out for the other old 
Thompson Republican party workers, “‘If you cannot 
vote for the other party candidate, do not vote at all,” 
the greater majority of the colored voters in the city 
chose the latter alternative. 

The interviewer! who did most of the field work with 
the colored non-voters came across a variety of inter- 
esting cases which illustrate all of the attitudes touched 
upon above. 

One negro from Alabama said that he could never vote for a 
Democrat as long as he kept his memory. The Democrats he 
knew in Alabama were the “‘imps of Satan.”’ He is thirty years of 
age and has lived in the most congested colored section of the city. 
He voted last in the presidential election of 1920. 

One woman from Georgia, who has lived in Chicago for seven- 
teen years and has voted regularly until this year, did not like the 
attitude of the colored people in voting for the other party candidate. 
She thinks that anyone who has lived in the South should forever 
hate the Democratic party, “not because all Democrats are bad, 
but because the party keeps its foot on the black man.” 

Mr. Edward Varis, a grocery-store owner, came to Chicago from 
Kentucky thirty-six years ago. He is now fifty-seven years of age— 
is a jocular little gray-haired mulatto man, and his store is a little 
neighborhood center. The polling place was formerly in his grocery 
store, and he said he “‘was up on all political matters.” His wife 
is the only woman in the precinct who was away visiting at the time 


1 Mrs. Loraine R. Green, graduate student at the University of Chicago. 


140 NON-VOTING 


of the election. She was in New York City. Mr. Varis last voted 
in the 1920 presidential. He registered but did not vote in the 
mayoralty election because of the attitude of the press. He said: 
*‘T have voted in Chicago for the past thirty-five years, and I do 
my own thinking. I will not vote for any candidate that is sup- 
ported by certain newspapers.” 

Mr. James Brown, aged fifty-eight years, has lived in Chicago 
for thirty-three years and at his present address for eight years. 
He has voted in Chicago for thirty-two years and has always voted 
the Republican ticket. He feels that he is too far along in life to 
change his politics. He thinks that “‘the Republican party candi- 
date would not do the city nor the people any good,” so he did not 
vote and advised others not to vote. 

Mr. Louis Dwight, aged sixty-three, came to Chicago six years 
ago. He cast his first ballot at the presidential election in 1880 in 
a Tennessee village. He voted regularly there until disqualified by 
the “grandfather clause.’’ He began again after the repeal of the 
*“Dortch law” and voted until he came to Chicago. He missed his 
first election in April of this year. He always has voted the straight 
Republican ticket and always will. During the past campaign he 
“‘kept open house,’’ advising people not to vote. He thinks “the 
colored people have put their hands in the lion’s mouth.” He has a 
very nice family of grown sons and daughters. His wife has never 
voted. She did not vote in Tennessee because she did not wish to 
come in contact with the discourteous people at the polls, and 
besides, the white women in the town where the family lived 
advised the colored women not to vote. She has not bothered to 
register and vote since coming to Chicago. 


The same objections to the Republican candidate 
and to voting for a Democrat were found among the 
negroes in the more prosperous sections of the city. 


A colored hotel waiter said that the business men and the 
individuals whom .he knew in the Loop advised him to vote for the 
Democratic candidate. His landlady was so bitterly opposed to 
his voting for a Democrat that he decided not to vote. She advised 
him to tell his Democratic friend that he voted that ticket and his 
Republican friends that he voted the Republican ticket. He was 
forty-eight years old. He moved from Kentucky, his birthplace, 
to Chicago when he was sixteen years of age, and he was living at the 
time of the interview in an elegantly furnished apartment. 


t.. 


b aii 


OL lle 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 141 


A woman party worker in another colored settlement, who 
owned a flat building and who had lived in the vicinity for thirty 
years, said that she was opposed to working for a Democratic 
candidate. Her husband worked for the Democratic candidate, 
but she refused to do so. She was a native of Alabama, but her 
long residence in the city had given her an opportunity to become 
interested in the politics of her community. She voted in the 
February primary, but was deadlocked by conflicting claims in the 
April election. 


While many of the colored voters lost interest in the 
mayoralty campaign after Mayor Thompson withdrew 
his name from the contest, many Italian voters in the 
city assumed a disinterested attitude when Judge 
Barasa failed to win the Republican nomination in the 
primary. 

One Italian laborer, who had been in the city for three years 
and in the United States for thirteen, said that his candidate lost in 
the election for nomination and that he did not care to vote for 
anyone else. He declared that he wanted a candidate of his own 
race before he would vote. 

An Italian factory worker said that he could not vote for Judge 
Barasa and therefore he did not vote at all. He was thirty-five 
years old, and he had come to the city directly from Italy when he 
was twenty. 


There were scattered individuals all over the city 
who did not vote in the April election because they had 
some special grudge against their particular party. 
The negroes were not the only ones who found the con- 
test devoid of interest with Mayor Thompson out of it. 
In a settlement of Russian Jews, several were found who 
declared that they did not vote because Thompson 
was out of it. In the sections of the city where the 
native whites of native parentage predominate, many 
staunch Republicans failed to find in Leuder’s candidacy 
sufficient of interest to vote.! Their objections to 


1 See below, pp. 203-7. 


142 NON-VOTING 


Dever, the Democratic candidate, were not personal, 
but grew out of their dislike for breaking party ties. 

The fact that even as small a group as 2 per cent of 
the non-voters in a municipality like Chicago can be 
classed as disgusted party men and women is significant 
in trying to analyze municipal nominating systems. 
Why should the tariff, the failures of the Harding 
administration, the issues of the reconstruction period 
following the Civil War, and the problems of the 
political status of the negro in the South be dragged into 
a mayoralty-election campaign in Chicago? The act 
providing for the non-partisan election of aldermen in 
Chicago was passed in the hope that some of these 
issues would be relegated to the background in local 
electoral contests. It is an anomalous situation that 
permits the continuation of the old party primary in 
mayoralty elections. A great many business men, 
small shopkeepers and others, and a great many work- 
ing people in Chicago refrain from voting in the pri- 
maries because they must disclose their party affiliations. 
A non-partisan primary for the selection of mayoralty 
candidates would tend to increase the amount of popular 
participation in the local primary elections as well as 
in the final election itself. 


BELIEF THAT ONE VOTE COUNTS FOR NOTHING 


The disillusioned voter, who believes that one vote 
counts for nothing, presents a difficult problem of 
political control. The ignorant citizen can be informed, 
the indifferent citizen can be stirred out of his lethargy, 
but the sophisticated cynic of democracy cannot be 
moved so easily. The precinct committeemen esti- 
mated that a large proportion of the non-voters had 
this “‘what’s the use ?”’ attitude. However, only 1.5 per 
cent of the non-voters interviewed gave clear indica- 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 143 


tion that this attitude was the most important cause of 
their abstention. Nearly two-thirds of the 79 non- 
voters accosted who believed that one vote counted 
for nothing also expressed either an indifferent attitude 
or a disgusted attitude toward politics. It is likely that 
the party experts classed many non-voters as dis- 
believers in the efficacy of the vote whom the inter- 
viewers would have classed as indifferent or disgusted 
non-voters. ‘The interviewers were instructed to put 
in the “disillusioned” class only those who thought the 
election was predetermined, and therefore took a 
fatalistic attitude toward voting. The party experts 
who wrote that many Socialists had given up hope in 
democracy because of the smallness of their numbers 
evidently caught this distinction, but the great bulk of 
the precinct committeemen did not, in part because 
disgust with politics was not one of the suggested 
reasons for not voting on the questionnaire sent out 
to them. 

Of the disillusioned voters, one-third were registered, 
while two-thirds were not registered. Of this two- 
thirds about one-half, mostly women, never had any 
voting experience. ‘The ratio of those who doubted 
the efficacy of the ballot was the highest among the 
men who were not registered but who had voted at some 
time in Chicago. The ratios for the women were 
generally lower than those for the men. 

Among the native white non-voters of native parent- 
age a much larger proportion of the men thought vot- 
ing futile than of the women. In actual numbers 
the ratio was 2 to 1. On the other hand, there was a 
higher proportion of females among the disillusioned 
non-voters of foreign parentage than among the males. 
For both sexes combined the nativity of parents did 
not appear as a discriminating factor. There were 


144 NON-VOTING 


disillusioned citizens of English, Irish, German, Italian, 
Scandinavian, and Slavic origin. The foreign-born 
who had acquired citizenship by naturalization were 
less likely to regard voting futile than the native-born. 

Disillusionment regarding voting was slightly less 
prevalent among those under forty years of age than 
it was among those over forty years of age, but it had 
about the same vogue among the old and the new 
residents of Chicago. It was more popular in the poor 
sections than in the wealthy sections of the city. It 
was found among 2 per cent of the male non-voters in 
slum districts, and not at all among the male non-voters 
in the very best residential areas. 

While the high proportion of housewives in the total 
sample of non-voters makes the proportion of house- 
wives among those who believed voting futile seem 
large, relatively the number of disillusioned housewives 
was not large. Over 2 per cent of the non-voters 
engaged in skilled work, while slightly over 1 per cent 
of housewives thought voting useless. A dozen or so 
laborers who were rooming out did not see the utility 
of the election process. 

The disillusioned attitude was found among those 
who were not registered, who were past middle age, and 
who lived in the poorer sections occupied with day work 
or housework. 

The reactions that some of the interviewers received 
from non-voters in the poorest sections of the city will 
illustrate clearly the nature of the belief that one vote 
counts for nothing. Some citizens thought that voting 
was useless because they did not derive any direct 
personal benefit from it. And there were many others 
who, as an able precinct committeeman said, “are 
skeptical of the efficacy of the ballot to intrench rights 
or redress wrongs.” 





DISGUST WITH POLITICS 145 


Mrs. Masek, a young housewife of Polish parentage living in one 
of the North Side river wards, said: ‘“‘ Nothing good comes out of it. 
They do exactly as they please. Your vote does not count. They 
just take the people for dubs.” 

A similar view was expressed by a young woman of Italian 
parentage living in the Ghetto district. She exclaimed: ‘‘ Don’t 
get anything out of it. It makes no difference. People who work by 
the hour get docked and those who are on piecework lose their time. 
Politicians are frequently unaccommodating. They wouldn’t help 
my brother get his papers.”’ 

Mrs. Amanda Miles, a young colored laundress, never voted 
because she saw no difference in her own social or economic position 
whether one candidate or another was in office. She thought there 
was no need wasting time by voting. 

Another common view among the poor people was expressed 
by Mrs. C, an elderly Bohemian woman, who never voted because 
she thought that the poor people only vote for aldermen; that the 
high officers were selected by the politicians without any help from 
the people; and that the politicians were making fools of the people. 

A Bohemian laborer, who worked in the Stockyards and lived 
in a cottage near by, was also of the conviction that there was no 
use in voting, as “‘it was all humbug anyway.” 

One of the most interesting cases of disillusionment was that of 
a colored woman, Mrs. Ara Jones, a native of Kentucky, but an 
old resident of the city. She said that she had never voted, and 
declared that she never had been interested in politics. She 
found the polls usually surrounded by drunken men, and she felt 
that it was a very unwholesome place. She thought that the 
ballot box was corrupted and would have liked to change conditions, 
but her one vote was “‘like sticking your finger in the lake and expect- 
ing it to leave a fingerprint.’’ Her house was kept in good condition 
and she herself was an active church worker. 


In the better residential districts some disillusioned 
non-voters were found whose cynicism was partly 
based on the belief that the government was run with- 
out regard to the expression of public opinion as given 
in elections. 


Mr. Jackson, a young telephone wireman living in the Wood- 
lawn neighborhood, thought that voting was useless because the 
people did not get what they wanted even after it was secured by a 


146 NON-VOTING 


vote of the majority. He felt that this was the situation particularly 
with regard to the beer and wine question. 

Miss Brown, a young telephone girl living in the Calumet region, 
believed that measures were carried regardless of the votes cast. 
Her view that voting was futile was based on the claim that the 
anti-daylight-saving proposition was carried, but daylight saving 
was put into effect anyway. 

An old newspaper man living in a Loop hotel said: “I did not 
want to vote for Lueder. There is so much crookedness in this 
ward that I did not take time to vote. I have reported many 
campaigns. Most elections here are decided before they occur. 
All knew Lueder had not resigned. A Washington senator was 
trying to run the situation. The time will come when we will 
elect by direct vote and have the referendum and recall; money 
will then lose its power.” 


There were various kinds of disillusionment regard- 
ing voting in the middle-class districts. Many regis- 
tered voters did not vote at the mayoralty election 
because they believed that a Democratic victory was a 
foregone conclusion. 


A rabid Irish feminist in one of the West Side wards said that 
she did not vote because women did not get the chance they deserve. 
** What is the use in voting when there are no women candidates ?”’ 
she exclaimed to the investigator. She believed her vote would only 
help the selfish ends of men. 

Another interesting woman living in the Hyde Park district 
usually voted but at the last election she failed to vote because she 
and her husband did not agree. When this occurred, she said, 
neither of them went to the polls as their votes canceled each other. 

Mrs. Loeb, a young woman of German parentage living on the 
North Side, said she did not vote because she knew there was no 
chance for Dever to lose. 

Mr. Johnson, a middle-aged colored laborer in the building 
trades, felt that the other party candidate was sure to win, so there 
was no need of his wasting the time to vote as his vote would avail 
nothing. 

An elderly lady in the Hyde Park district thought that the elec- 
tion would bea clean sweep so she did not bother to vote. She added 
that the women’s clubs should put out information about elections, 
advising women who are busy as to who are the best candidates. 


ee 


ee, ee ee 


Salad 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 147 


Another type of cynicism regarding elections is found 
among the Socialists. Many Socialists realize the 
present hopelessness of their cause as far as arbitra- 
ment at the ballot box is concerned. 

Mr. Westy, a young Yellow Cab driver of Russian parentage, 
did not go out of his way to vote in the election because he realized 
the hopelessness of Cunnea’s candidacy, the Socialist running for 
mayor. 

Miss Worth, a young lady who worked with a co-operative 
exchange, did not vote because she was a member of the Farmer- 
Labor party and felt that she would waste her time voting for 
either a Democrat or a Republican. She would have voted if 
there had been any Farmer-Labor candidate for mayor. 

Mr. B, a sculptor of socialistic tendencies, said that he was once 
interested in political affairs, but he thought there was little choice 
between the candidates now. He would vote Socialist if at all, 
but he thought even the Socialists had become conservative. He 
took a whimsical attitude toward voting, and expressed the view 
that even Socialists could accomplish little after getting into office. 


The persons who believe that voting was futile did 
not constitute a clearly defined group of non-voters. 
Their conviction that voting was useless was sometimes 
based on a general disgust with politics or a belief that 
the ballot box was corrupted—attitudes which are 
discussed elsewhere. Should an attempt be made to 
show these non-voters the utility of voting? If so, 
how? Those disillusioned voters whose cynicism was 
based on their failure to get some direct benefit from 
the government can possibly be shown that the services 
which the government renders are not always of a 
tangible sort. 


BELIEF THAT THE BALLOT BOX IS CORRUPTED 


Belief that the ballot box is corrupted is a special 
kind of disgust with politics. In some cases it is diffi- 
cult to tell which of the two disbeliefs in voting char- 
-acterizes the attitude of a given non-voter. The 


148 NON-VOTING 


interviewers were instructed to put in the class under 
discussion only those persons who felt that the election 
returns were fixed, or that votes were bought and sold. 
The Election Commissioners,! the precinct committee- 
men, and the persons prominent in the political life of 
the city were all willing to admit that there was some 
lack of confidence in the purity of elections in Chicago. 
A precinct captain from one of the river wards gave an 
excellent description of his impressions on this subject: 


What can be done if both precinct captains want to put over a 
candidate? Just speak to their judges and clerks, that’s all they 
lave to do, if they are dishonest. How are ballot boxes protected 
at the polls before they are opened and counted, how are they 
counted, what happens when the judges and clerks we cannot trust 
go to dinner at the polls? Now there is no such thing as an honest 
election and the public knows this. 


A high court official made the following comment 
along similar lines: 

Most important of all is a deep conviction among candidates 
that the police returns are intentionally falsified by many clerks 
in transcribing the returns to the books of the Election Commis- 
sioners as they are called off by the reading clerk. It is a common 
saying if a candidate receives less than 5,000 plurality over his 
nearest competitor he is not considered safe. 


Belief that the ballot box is corrupted was given as 
the cause of non-voting by 40 of the 5,000 non-voters 
interviewed. Nearly one-half of these individuals also 
indicated that they were disgusted with politics. Since 
their disgust arose out of their lack of faith in the purity 
of the city elections, the latter reason was taken as the 
primary one and the former as secondary. ‘The twelve 
cases in which indifference was combined with a belief 
that the election procedure was corrupted were treated 
in the same fashion. Belief that the ballot box is 


1The City Club Bulletin, January 14, 1924. 


acne « fee 


bere Sn ome 


a 
q 
4 
F 





DISGUST WITH POLITICS 149 


corrupted stood out as the most important cause of non- 
voting in all those cases where it was clearly stated, no 
matter with what other factor it was combined. 

While these forty non-voters constitute less than 
1 per cent of the total number of non-voters interviewed, 
they are an interesting group to consider. Two-thirds 
of them thought it was not worth their while even to 
register and over one-quarter of them had never voted. 
Disgust with the Chicago election machinery was more 
pronounced among the male non-voters who had been 
voters in other localities than among those who had 
voted only in the city. It was also a relatively more 
important factor among the male non-voters than it was 
among the female non-voters. The eighteen men who 
had no faith in elections in Chicago made up over 1 per 
cent of the total number of male non-voters, while the 
twenty-one women who evidenced a similar lack of 
faith constituted only one-half of 1 per cent of the female 
non-voters. 

While the ratio of those who had no faith in the fair- 
ness of the local-election process to the total number of 
non-voters of each nationality considered was very 
small in each case, it was slightly larger among the 
colored non-voters and among the non-voters of 
German, Italian, or Bohemian parentage than among 
the other nationalistic groups. Three per cent of the 
male non-voters of German parentage were convinced 
that the election process was manipulated. ‘There were 
no persons of Irish, Polish, or English extraction who 
gave this reason for not voting. 

Like disgust with politics, belief that the ballot box 
is corrupted was held by a larger ratio of the young men 
than of the old men. On the other hand, the women 
non-voters who shared this belief were just as likely 
to be youthful as elderly. Term of residence in the 


150 NON-VOTING 


county did not seem to have much to do with the 
development of a doubting attitude toward the honesty 
of Chicago elections. ‘This may mean that it did not 
take long for a person to find out the character of the 
election process in Chicago. 

Three-fourths of the non-voters who had no con- 
fidence in the purity of elections in Chicago came from 
residential districts in which rental values were depre- 
ciated. Election corruption was found to be more 
prevalent in the rooming-house districts where honest 
and efficient election officials were difficult to find than 
it was in the well-to-do sections where questionable 
practices would not be openly countenanced. 

About one-half of those who had no confidence in 
the purity of elections in the city were skilled or 
unskilled laborers, and three-fourths of the remainder 
were housewives. ‘The occupational analysis corrob- 
orates what is suggested by the analysis of these non- 
voters by type of neighborhood. They came from 
groups which were in close contact with the rougher 
edges of city life. 

It is difficult to make any accurate summary state- 
ments about a group as small as the non-voters inter- 
viewed who believed that the ballot box is corrupted. 
There were just as many men as women in this group, 
which is contrary to the general ratio. The men pos- 
sessed more striking characteristics than the women. 
Few of them were registered, most of them were past 
forty, practically all of them were unskilled or skilled 
workers. The women, like the men, came from the 
poorer sections of the city where certain racial groups 
predominated. 

A number of complaints regarding corrupt election 
practices were heard in the cosmopolitan neighborhood 
immediately outside of the Loop business district. The 


i oe 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 151 


interviewer! who worked in this depreciated residential 
area came upon many illuminating cases. There were 
many citizens who had become so disgusted that they 
declared that they would never vote again. They told 
of drinks given for votes, of offers of money for their 
votes on the ground that it was all common people got 
out of the government, of bribery of the colored people, 
of girls voting under age, of the impossibility of securing 
the ballots of but one party at the primaries, of their 
ballots being opened by the judges right before their 
eyes, of the large number of drunken men around the 
polls, of such eagerness on the part of the workers at 
the polls that the people vote right that they come 
into the booths and take the pencil right out of their 
hands. 


The man who complained that the party workers had taken the 
pencil away from him when he was in the polling booth was a car- 
penter, born in this country of Swedish parents and a resident of the 
city for forty years. He declared that there was “too much rotten 
humbug going on at the polls,’ and that it “‘made no difference 
whether he voted or not.” His wife was a telegraph operator, 
native-born of German parentage, and she also had had experiences 
with the corrupt politicians. As she put it, she “‘never got to vote 
for whom she wanted.” 

The woman who complained about drunkenness at the polls and 
about the difficulty of securing the primary ballot of but one party 
was an elderly Canadian who had been in the city for fifty years. 
She called the election officials a “gang of nothing but crooks.” 
Her sister was very irate and almost slapped one of the officials 
when handed Democratic papers instead of the Republican papers 
for which she had asked. ‘Liquor was on hand”’ for all the election 
officials, and they “‘were too drunk to talk to” at the February 
primaries, so she “didn’t like to go there.” 

The woman who was given a marked ballot was a middle-aged 
housewife, native-born of Swiss and German parentage. She was 
told that her husband would show her how to vote and warned her 
*“not to tell for she would be put in jail.”’ 


1 Mr. Beck. 


152 NON-VOTING 


One man grew so furious when approached on the subject of 
voting that he slammed the door in the face of the interviewer and 
said he would have nothing to do or say with such a rotten 
process. 

Another thought conditions at the polls were so bad and that 
there was so little possibility of their being improved in this district 
that he advocated a common polling place for the whole city— 
in the Coliseum, he suggested. 


Another district where a widespread belief existed 
that the ballot box is corrupted was the congested 
colored precinct in the Second Ward. 


A young laborer said that he was greatly interested in the 
primary, but he thought money elected the aldermen. “‘ Votes 
were bought with money and booze.” His wife worked in the 
primary for the defeated candidate. Since the primary he has lost 
interest in politics and does not “‘waste his time in voting.” 

Mr. Dennis, who worked in the Stockyards, was also disgusted 
with election methods in the city. He was convinced that votes 
were bought right and left in the last election. Conditions were 
getting better for the rich and worse for the poor. 

Mr. Linder, a thirty-nine-year-old laborer in an asphalt com- 
pany, thought that the ballots were voided after the polls were 
closed. A colored man ran for a judgeship in 1921, and Mr. Linder 
thinks that he was counted out by the persons who counted the 
ballots. 


The non-voters of German or Russian parentage who 
believed that the election machinery was corruptly 
manipulated were apt to be Socialists. 


In a precinct on the North Side which was predominantly 
German, a young photo-engraver of German parentage was very 
bitter over the Cunnea-Hoyne recount of 1912. He thought that 
politics was so corrupted that the workers’ candidates had no 
chance. He knew that Cunnea had no chance and so he did not 
care about voting. 

Mrs. Loeft, a woman of German parentage living in the same 
precinct, declared that all politics was corrupt and that the capital- 
istic candidates, or rather the servants of the capitalists, always 
won regardless of how the votes were cast. She also claimed that 
Hughes was counted out in California in 1916. 





DISGUST WITH POLITICS 153 


In the Ghetto district, two Russian Jews were found who had 
no faith in the honesty of Chicago elections. One, an express driver 
fifty-eight years old, thought that elections were not only corrupt 
but also useless, for if a person dangerous to the big interests was 
elected he was promptly prevented from taking office or was bought 
off. His wife claimed that votes were stolen and elections were 
bought; even when a good man was elected he was forced to remain 
quiet or was thrown out. She, like her husband, was a Socialist. 


The non-voters of native parentage who thought 
that the ballot box is corrupted in Chicago were not as 
numerous as some of the other groups. Living in 
neighborhoods where the power of money in elections 
was slight and where open manipulation was not tol- 
erated, they were not so apt to come in contact with 
corrupt election practices. 

In the Woodlawn district a young architect was interviewed 
who did not think that honest voters stood much chance anyway. 
He thought that the candidates were usually so bad that he had 
never voted, although he was thirty-four years of age. 

In a well-to-do North Side precinct, an electrician living in a 
basement declared that he did not vote because in the April primary 
he came home early from work in order to vote and when he reached 
the polling place he found that another had voted for him. Since 
that time he had not taken the trouble to get excused from work. 
““What’s the use ?” he said; “if they want your vote they will take 
it, and if not, they will scratch it. Twice I have been asked at the 
polls how I voted.” : 


Although the number of non-voters interviewed who 
thought elections were vitiated by fraud in Chicago was 
relatively small, the fact that there were any at all 
indicates that the administration of elections in the 
city is not what it should be. A careful student of 
registration systems for voting in the United States has 
made the following comment on the Chicago system: 

There is now, and has been for some time, a considerable amount 


of fraudulent voting in Chicago. Perhaps the larger part of this is 
done by impersonation of qualified voters, or by voting the names 


154 NON-VOTING 


of persons who have died or moved out of the precinct, and whose 
names are left on the books through the negligence or corruptness 
of the canvassers, but there is also a considerable number of fictitious 
names upon the registers.1.... 

The present unsatisfactory conditions could be 
remedied in a measure by giving the central office more 
power of supervision and investigation, by providing 
an adequate canvass of the precincts about once each 
year, by adopting the merit system for the selection of 
precinct election officials, and by providing an adequate 
check upon the counting and tallying of the ballots done 
by the election officers. 


DISBELIEF IN ALL POLITICAL ACTION 


Considering that Chicago is the headquarters for 
the I.W.W. and has been the meeting place for various 
radical groups, it might be expected that a fair propor- 
tion of the adult citizens in the city would be disbelievers 
in all political action and advocates of direct action or 
of some other form of non-political action. However, 
because of the attacks upon the radical groups by the 
federal officials, it is difficult to get any frank expression 
of a definitely anti-political attitude. Those non-voters 
who did give evidence of a disbelief in all political action 
were more likely to take the attitude that one vote 
counted for nothing than they were to assume a defi- 
nitely “‘anarchistic”’ attitude. They disbelieved in all 
kinds of political action that were immediately possible. 
Some of them expressed the hope that a better ordering 
of authority relationships in modern society might be 
worked out. 

Disbelief in all political action was regarded as the 
most important cause of non-voting in only 22 of the 
total 5,000 cases obtained in this survey. In addition 


1J. P. Harris, Registration Systems in the United States (University of 
Chicago doctoral dissertation, 1923). 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 155 


to these 22, it appeared ten times elsewhere in com- 
bination with some other reason which was regarded as 
more important. A detailed analysis of the character- 
istics of these non-voters shows that the great bulk of 
them were not registered. Those few who were regis- 
tered did not register to vote, but, as one of them put it, 
“to be identified with the local community.’ While 
less than half of 1 per cent of the non-voters disbelieved 
in all political action, 1 per cent of the male non-voters 
who were not registered and 2 per cent of men who had 
never voted took an anti-political attitude. 

The non-voters who disbelieved in all political action 
were scattered among all the different nationalities 
found in the city except the Irish and the Polish. No 
Irishmen were discovered who had lost faith in political 
methods in this country. 

The number of non-voters who disbelieved in all 
political action was so small that it is possible to describe 
all of the interesting ones. 

Mr. A, an elderly native American insurance agent who lived in 
an apartment renting for $60 per month or more, registered in order 
to be identified with his community, but he never voted. He 
believed in occupational rather than political representation, and 
he had no use for the present kind of political action. 

A well-informed blind student was convinced that all elections 
are humbug. He believed that it is impossible for anyone to cast 
an intelligent vote because of the impossibility of knowing about 
the candidates. “All sources of information are corrupt and not 
to be trusted. And furthermore, if the informed citizen could cast 
an intelligent vote it would count for nothing because it would be 
nullified by the unintelligent vote of the sewer digger which counts 
for just as much.” He was dissatisfied with the party system at 
present. He believed that a monarchy would be a better form of 
government than the present form, and he had great contempt for 
the “‘Demos.”’ 

The colored non-voters who evidenced a lack of 
faith in all political action were of two general types. 


156 NON-VOTING 


One type was the general social iconoclast, and the 
other type the religious objector. 


In the heart of the congested negro section of the city was a 
woman, thirty-five years of age, who was born in Kentucky and 
had lived in Chicago for twenty years. She had a nervous tempera- 
ment and became very excited when interviewed on the subject of 
voting, giving expression to “radical thoughts” in a high-pitched 
voice. She had attended high school and had read a great deal by 
herself. The party workers had “harassed” her to register, and 
when she had questioned them about the political situation she had 
found them ignorant. Among other things she said: “‘The people 
are incapable of self-government. They do not know what they 
are voting for. The party with the most money and spoils wins. 
The whole system is wrong.” 

An Evangelist preacher in the Nazarene Apostolic church said 
that the creed of his church forbade participation in public life. 
He told the members in his congregation that they must not vote. 
This preacher was forty-five years of age, a native of Tennessee, and 
a resident of the city for ten years. Some members of his church, 
disbelievers in all political action for the same reason that he gave, 
were also interviewed. As one of them put it: “Earthly super- 
vision and regulation is not only superfluous but detrimental since 
God is watching over the whole world and regulating all of its 
activities.” 


Among the citizens of foreign stock a few were 
found who manifested a lack of faith in the laws and 
the government of this country. 


In the Bohemian and Polish section of the city back of the Stock- 
yards an old lady was interviewed who called the government all 
kinds of names. ‘The neighbors said to the interpreter: ““Go on and 
arrest her for the way she is calling the government names.” The 
woman answered in angry tones that she was doing right and would 
not do anything for the government. She continued as follows: 
“They are a pack of thieves. They are taking everything away 
from the people. The next thing they will come and take my home 
away from me.” . 

A mild expression of the anti-political attitude was given by a 
young Russian musician, living in a West Side Jewish community. 
He thought that not only was the ballot box corrupted but even 


DISGUST WITH POLITICS 157 


those elected were thrown out, as in the case of Victor Berger and 
the New York Socialists. He declared that he would never vote, 
as he thought political action useless here. 

A young Jewish art student said that he saw no use in voting, 
as the Socialists had no chance. He said that he was becoming 
disgusted with political action and was turning toward “‘direct 
action.” 


Judging from the number of persons who disbelieve 
in all political action that a dozen of interviewers were 
able to find in three months’ time, there is no need for 
concern regarding any immediate overthrowal of the 
government by this group. Those persons opposed to 
all political action who were discovered were not of a 
very militant or violent type. The philosophical or 
religious “anarchist”? is not an immediate menace to 
society. The persons who abjure political action 
because they are contemptuous of the world in general 
are not likely to lead any anti-political movement. 


CHAPTER VII 
GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 


The obvious answer to the query as to why so many 
adult citizens fail to vote is general indifference. The 
740,000 adult citizens who did not vote on April 3, 1923, 
were indifferent to the stimuli which moved the other 
half of the citizenry pollward. To say that these 
citizens were indifferent does not throw much light on 
the cause of their non-voting. It simply states the 
fact of their non-voting in another form. An attempt 
is made in this chapter to break up the general negative 
attitude assumed by the average non-voter into its 
component elements. In this way it is hoped to get 
behind the mask of general indifference. While the 


TABLE XVIII 


Per Cent of Total 
Reasons for Not Voting Number Non-Voters 
Interviewed 
Total giving general indifference or some 

form of imertin sce aes ee leh in cp eras 2,349 4A 3 
General indifference ih ay Ge 22 a6 os cea canals 1,347 25 .4 
Indifference to particular election....,....... 129 2.5 
Neglect—intended to vote but failed......... 448 8.4 
Ignorance or timidity regarding elections...... 378 7.1 
Failure of party workerayice 200. ho ss es AT 0.9 


mask may not be entirely removed, something about 
the kind of persons who wear it will be brought to 
light. Inertia as a cause of non-voting has been broken 
up into the following: indifference to the last election, 
neglect (intended to vote but failed), ignorance or 
timidity regarding elections, and failure of the party 


158 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA _— 159 


workers. General indifference is, of course, the most 
common type of inertia. The analysis of the character- 
istics of the persons who took an indifferent attitude 
toward elections and also the analysis of their verbal 
reactions to questions about their political attitudes will 
reveal something about the problem of political control 
in an urban community like Chicago. 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE 


According to all the methods of analysis used in this 
investigation, general indifference is the most common 
cause of non-voting. The precinct committeemen, the 
persons of political importance in the city, and the non- 
voters themselves all placed this factor at the top of the 
list. One well-known alderman who was questioned 
on this matter made the following excellent analysis of 
general indifference toward elections in Chicago: 


Indifference is undoubtedly the greatest cause of non-voting. 
‘It is difficult to do anything more than generalize about this, but in 
Chicago it might be analyzed in this way: Life in a large city is 
always under constant pressure. Rich, poor, and moderately 
well-to-do all have their theaters, cafés, movies, social events, 
sports, etc. They do those things which give them a thrill or a 
*kick.”’ A dull election, in which there is nothing of the dramatic, 
does not interest them, not even to the point of giving up the ten 
or fifteen minutes which are required to vote. If the election is 
turned into a great sporting event, a neck-and-neck race, they may 
be drawn to the polls. In the twenty years that I have lived in 
Chicago, I do not recall a single animated street-corner conversa- 
tion on politics between men who were not directly interested. 
About the only thing which has even stirred the indifferent voter 
slightly is the prohibition question.1 


The interviewers were instructed to label a non- 
voter as indifferent when he or she merely replied to 
questions with a shrug of the shoulders or with some 


1 Alderman U. S. Schwartz. 


160 NON-VOTING 


such remark as, “‘Put down any reason that you want.” 

-Women who said they were too busy with housework, 
too busy taking care of children, too busy with social 
life, or too busy with church work were also classed with 
those who were indifferent to the political process. 
General indifference appeared on one-third of the 5,000 
schedules that were turned in by the field workers. It 
was regarded as the principal reason for not voting in a 
quarter of all the cases investigated. General indiffer- 
ence was the sole reason given for failure to vote in a 
little more than one-half of the entire number of cases 
where it appeared. In other words, general indifference 
appeared in combination with some other reason about 
one thousand times. ‘This in itself indicates the indefi- 
nite nature of this attitude. The most common partners 
of general indifference were ignorance or timidity regard- 
ing elections and disbelief in woman’s voting. Each 
of these latter reasons appeared over two hundred times 
in conjunction with general indifference. The next 
mgst common companions of general indifference were 
neglect and disgust, each of which was found with the 
reason under discussion about one hundred times. 

_ Among the rather questionable combinations were those 
between general indifference and illness and absence. 
Where these factors occurred together it was difficult 
to say whether the obstacle was physical or mental. 
There was no cause listed in this investigation with the 
exception of indifference to a particular election, which 
did not appear at least twice in conjunction with general 
indifference. Most of these combinations occurred 
about two dozen times. 

An analysis of the 1,347 cases of indifference that 
were used for the detailed cross-tabulations shows that 
there was about twice as much general indifference 
among the women as there was among the men. While 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 161 


nearly every seventh male non-voter admitted he did 
not care about elections, the same admission was made 
by every third female non-voter. Another character- 
istic of the indifferent non-voters was that most of them 
were not registered. Only 10 per cent of the registered 
voters who did not vote in the mayoralty election were 
indifferent, while about one-third of all the non-voters 
who were not registered were indifferent. Eighty-five 
per cent of the indifferent female citizens interviewed 
in this investigation were not registered, and 61 per 
cent of them had never voted. From this it may be 
concluded that general indifference was the leading 
factor among the habitual female non-voters, two-fifths 
of whom could give no definite reason for their absten- 
tion other than a general disinterested attitude. Gen- 
eral indifference was also an important factor among the 
habitual male non-voters. Every third man inter- 
viewed who had never voted could give no adequate 
explanation for his failure to vote except that he was 
not interested in politics. 

General indifference was slightly more prevalent 
among the non-voters of foreign parentage than it was 
‘among the non-voters of native parentage. Twenty- 
two per cent of the non-voters of native white parentage 
could give no explanation for their failure to vote except 
general inertia. On the other hand, nearly one-third 
of the non-voters of Slavic or Italian parentage were 
indifferent. The ratio of indifference among the other 
‘racial’? groups did not vary much from the general 
average. One-third of all the foreign-born female non- 
voters who were naturalized by marriage were com- 
pletely indifferent to all elections. From this it is clear 

1The “normal distribution” of colored non-voters, given above on 


p. 40, shows that the percentage of indifferent colored non-voters was 
about the same as that found in the other groups. 


162 NON-VOTING 


that the indifferent citizens interviewed were largely 
foreign-born women, who had had no voting experi- 
ence. 

General indifference was more common among the 
young citizens than it was among the old, and it was of 
least importance among the middle-aged. Nearly two- 
thirds of the indifferent citizens were under forty years 
of age. One-third of the female non-voters in their 
twenties were indifferent, while only one-fourth of those 
in their forties or fifties were indifferent. This may be 
accounted for on the ground that the middle-aged 
women were more likely to give disbelief in women’s 
voting than general indifference. Only among the 
Scandinavian and Slavic women was there a higher 
ratio of indifference among those over forty years than 
among those under forty years of age. One-sixth of 
the men in their twenties gave indifference as the reason 
for their failure to vote. The proportion of indifferent 
citizens among both the men and women seventy years 
of age and over was higher than in any of the other age 
groups. ‘The correlation between youthfulness or old 
age and general indifference was also close among those 
who had never voted. 

There was a direct relation between the attitude of 
indifference toward elections and length of residence in 
the city. Twenty-seven per cent of the non-voters 
interviewed who had been in the city less than ten years 
were indifferent to politics. This was nearly 3 per cent 
higher than the percentage of indifference among those 
who had been in the city for a longer period of time. 
Newcomers to the city take several years to get ad- 
justed to the city environment. This generaliza- 
tion holds true for the whites of native parentage as 
well as for the whites of English, Italian, or Bohemian 
parentage and for the negroes. ‘The proportion of new 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 163 


‘residents among the indifferent citizens was greatest 
among the negroes who had never voted. 

Among both the men and the women general indiffer- 
ence was less prevalent in the well-to-do neighborhoods 
than in the poor neighborhoods. Only one in every five 
of the female non-voters interviewed in the best resi- 
dential sections admitted general indifference, while 
every third female non-voter in the poor residential 
sections freely admitted an indifferent attitude toward 
elections. ‘The rental line made the same sort of a divi- 
sion among the indifferent male non-voters. Among 
the female non-voters of German or Scandinavian 
parentage there was relatively a large amount of 
indifference in districts where prevailing rents were 
over $50 a month. In general, so few of the non- 
voters of foreign parentage lived in the better residen- 
tial neighborhoods that no conclusions can be drawn 
with reference to the effect that a higher economic 
status might have upon their political attitudes. Of 
the habitual non-voters who expressed indifference 
toward elections, four-fifths lived in the poor neighbor- 
hoods. The persons living in houses were less likely 
to be indifferent than were the persons living in apart- 
ments, flats, or hotels. This difference is partly trace- 
able to economic status and partly to the fact that 
families occupying houses were more closely attached 
to the local community. 

An analysis of the occupations of the indifferent 
non-voters shows that most of them were housewives. 
Three out of every four of the non-voters who ex- 
pressed an indifferent attitude toward elections were 
housewives. Indifference was also an important factor 
among the domestic servants, the clerical workers, and 
the unskilled workers. It was of less importance 
among the business men on their own time, the traveling 


164 NON-VOTING 


salesmen, and the professional men. Only 8 per cent - 
of the non-voting salesmen were found to be indifferent. 
This low percentage was partly due to the large pro- 
portion of salesmen who gave absence from city as a 
cause of their non-voting. Among the housewives who 
had never voted almost every other one was found to be 
indifferent. Forty per cent of the skilled workers, the 
clerical workers, and one-third of the small shop- 
keepers who had never voted were indifferent. 

In concluding the statistical analysis, it can be said 
that most of the citizens who gave indifference as a 
reason for not voting were white women of foreign 
parentage, not registered, having little voting experi- 
ence, living in the poorer sections of the city, and having 
no occupation but housework. Indifference among the 
men was much less prevalent but it was found to some 
extent among the men of foreign parentage who were 
not registered and who lived in the poorest neighbor- 
hoods, earning their living by unskilled work. 

It is necessary to consider a number of individual 
cases in order to understand the various kinds of situa- 
tions in which a person pays no attention to elections. 
It has been shown that there is some relation between 
indifference and age. Persons just becoming of age, 
whether male or female, have no fully developed voting 
habits. On the other hand, citizens of advanced years, 
especially the female citizens, are likely to show no 
interest in elections. | 

Mr. James Anderson, a young colored laborer, who just became 
of age a few days before the election, did not vote because he had 
not yet given any thought to politics. Mr. Anderson came to Chi- 
cago in 1919 and now lives with his brother in a house situated in 
one of the better colored sections of the city. 

Miss Benda, a girl born in Chicago of Italian parentage, had 


never voted because she was of the opinion that young girls have 
other things to think about besides voting and government. 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 165 


Mrs. Tarrington, a widow, aged sixty, had never voted because 
she was tired of politics. Her husband had been a “‘fiend for 
politics,’’ but since he died she took no interest in politics. 

Mrs. Kraus, an elderly German lady who lives in the old 
Austin section, said that she was over her voting days. She 
wanted “‘to get out and have some fun now.” Her children could 
vote for her. Mrs. Kraus had voted in 1913 when woman suffrage 
was first inaugurated for local elections. 

Mr. Kimmel, an old German laborer living in a nearby ward, 
had not voted since 1919. He said that he felt old and tired and 
that the death of his wife left him uninterested in the politics of the 
city. He was living with his daughter at the time. 


Another factor which has something to do with 
indifference is the length of time that the person has 
been in his voting precinct and in the city. Many who 
had lived in the city for more than a year and who could 
have qualified as electors still felt themselves strangers 
to the community. 


Mr. Janowski, a young Polish laborer, voted last in 1919. 
Shortly after that date he moved to another section of the city. He 
had not voted since he moved and he said that he was expecting to 
move back to his old neighborhood and would probably vote then. 

In the Polish settlement near the Stockyards, a woman of 
Polish ancestry was interviewed who said that she had voted in 
Chicago Ridges in 1917. Public opinion in this small village made 
her vote in the first election that women voted, but when she moved 
to the city she lost interest in political affairs and found plenty 
of other things to do. 

Mr. Jensen, a young man of Norwegian ancestry who had just 
moved to the city from a small town, had never voted because he 
had not yet adjusted himself to his new urban environment. He 
intimated, however, that he would start voting soon, as most of his 
friends voted. 

In the Hyde Park district Mrs. A, a woman just past fifty, had 
never taken part in politics since coming to Chicago in 1917. She 
had lived formerly in Denver, and said that she had always voted 
there. She knew Colorado politics and was interested. All her 
friends and she did political work. She found it difficult to make 
new contacts in Chicago and has not yet been able to adjust herself. 


166 NON-VOTING 


Mrs. R, who lived in a residential hotel with her mother and 
brother, took no interest in elections. She had moved to the hotel 
in 1922 shortly after the death of her husband, and she found nothing 
in her daily life which had any connection with politics and elections. 

In one of the Italian communities in Chicago, Mr. Guida, a retail 
grocer, aged fifty-five, resident of the city for a dozen years, said 
that he was naturalized for protection only and did not care to vote 
or to take any part in politics. 


Some people vote only when they are urged strongly 
to do so by members of their families or by their friends. 
When this pressure is lacking they are indifferent to 
the political process. 


Mrs. Borrelli, an elderly Italian woman who came to the city 
in 1905, had not voted since 1921. She was unable to speak Eng- 
lish, but by using a neighbor as an interpreter, the interviewer was 
able to find out that she “never went to vote except with her 
husband.” 

In the Lawndale community, a Jewish woman living in a $60-a- 
month apartment, said that she voted when her husband reminded 
her. She had only voted a few times and was not yet accustomed to 
the procedure. Her husband had not reminded her of the election 
in April, 1923, because he was disgusted with politics at that time, 
having been unable to secure a much-desired sign permit. 

An elderly Polish woman living near the Stockyards, who 
became a citizen when her husband was naturalized in 1900, had not 
voted since 1918. She said that he did not go to vote so she did 
not. If he did, she also would. 


There were some indifferent citizens who would not 
or could not give any adequate explanation of their 
non-voting, the election had made so little impression 
upon them. 


One young musician living in the Hyde Park district said that 
he had one of his temperamental spells at election time and neg- 
lected to vote. 

A Polish woman living in one of the river wards in a dilapidated 
flat did not remember whether she had voted for mayor or not. 
She thought that she was too tired to vote at that time and did not 
go because she washed that day. 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA ~— 167 


An elderly German woman living on the North Side had never 
voted and admitted that she was not at all interested in elections. 
She said that she did not need to render any more services to the 
country for she gave a son. 

Mr. Brown, a young man of twenty-three, said that he had 
neither registered nor voted and that he had no intention of doing 
so. With a nonchalant manner, he affirmed that he had no time 
for such things. He seemed to be quite proud of the fact that he 
had been able to resist the social pressures brought to bear on young 
men to vote. 


Citizens who vote only when they perceive some 
special, direct benefit can be derived therefrom are not 
likely to vote when the vision of that benefit is lacking. 
The men and women whose business or work engrossed 
most of their time were quite frequently indifferent 
toward elections, especially when their business had 
no very direct connection with the government. 

Mrs. Sanderson, living in the Englewood district of Chicago, 
informed the investigator that she took no interest in politics 
because she owned no property. Her statement was: ‘There is 
no use to vote unless you get something for it.” 

A woman of native parentage living in the Hyde Park district 
declared that she did not care for voting and would vote only when 
some special reason induced her to vote, as in 1916, when she voted 
for Wilson, hoping that if he were elected the eight-hour law would 
be passed. She did it to help her brothers who were railroad men 
and who urged her to vote. 

A young retail salesman of Danish parentage, living in the old 
Austin section, did not vote in the mayoralty because he was more 
interested in his business than in politics. He said that he might 
vote when he had more time. 

It has been pointed out that many of the indif- 
ferent non-voters were housewives. The housewife is 
likely to be more interested in taking care of her 
children, in taking care of her house, in church work, 
or in thé social life of her community than she is in poli- 
tics. Most of the cases of indifference found among the 
housewives can be explained along one of these lines. 


168 NON-VOTING 


Mrs. Rosetti, a middle-aged wife of an Italian laborer who 
came to this country in 1888, said that she had never voted because 
she was too busy. As she expressed it: “‘Got a lot of children.” 

A woman in the Bohemian settlement near the Chicago River 
had never voted because her domestic duties were of too pressing 
anature. Her first husband ran away with a young girl of eighteen 
years of age, and she married a widower with six children and so 
did not have time to be interested in politics. 

In a well-to-do section on the North Side a young woman of 
native parentage declared she could not get a maid to care for her 
children so she did not vote. 

A colored woman, aged thirty-three, living in a flat that rented 
for $18 a month, had never voted, because she did not care for 
politics. She preferred to devote her time to church work and her 
lodge. Politics, she said, was all right for those who were inter- 
ested. She spent her time doing other things. 

A Danish woman on the North Side, fifty-two years of age, 
declared that she was more interested in the home and in church 
work than in voting. 


As long as registration for voting is a personal 
matter as in Chicago, entirely dependent upon the 
initiative of the eligible electors, there will be many 
women who have not established voting habits who will 
not register. A complete official registration such as is 
made in some foreign countries might be a method of 
teaching these women something about the importance 
of their electoral privileges. With or without such a 
registration system it is probable that the chief reliance 
of those interested in cutting down the number of 
indifferent electors will have to be put in publicity and 
adult educational campaigns. 


INDIFFERENCE TO PARTICULAR ELECTION 


Indifference to the particular election was an alter- 
native reason for not voting that might be checked by 
the interviewer under the heading of general indiffer- 
ence. It did not appear on the questionnaires sent to 
the precinct committeemen and the persons prominent 


* GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA _ 169 


in political life. Indifference to the particular election 
signifies in this study that the non-voter was not 
interested in the election of the mayor, the run-off 
election of aldermen, and the election of minor city 
officials. In other words, the election of April 3, 1923, 
was a municipal election, and the citizens who failed to 
take part in it showed a lack of interest in Chicago 
politics. It is reasonable to expect that persons who 
had no interest in Chicago politics might also be 
uninformed on political matters. The most common 
partner of indifference to the city election was ignorance 
or timidity regarding elections. In these combinations 
the ignorance was usually a lack of information about 
the candidates who were running for office. Indiffer- 
ence to the last election occurred 129 times on the 
schedules which were collected by the investigators. 
On 23 schedules it appeared in combination with some 
other factor. Belief that one vote counts for nothing 
and disgust with own party were frequently found in 
conjunction with indifference to the city election. In 
fact, all the persons who said they objected to their 
own party candidate and to voting for the other party 
candidate were indifferent to the city election. How- 
ever, these persons possessed a positive attitude against 
voting, as has been brought out above. 

The percentage of non-voters who were indifferent 
to the particular election was found to be about the 
same for the men as for the women. Practically all 
who gave this reason had had some voting experience. 
Only seven citizens who had never voted said that they 
did not care about the particular election. Over 3 per 
cent of the women who were registered were indifferent 
to the election, and over 4 per cent of the women who 
had voted in Chicago at some time did not find any- 
thing which appealed to them in the election. - 


170 NON-VOTING 


There was no appreciable difference in the impor- 
tance of the factor under discussion among the various 
age groups of native-born and foreign-born. In none 
of the nationalistic groups did the percentage of those 
indifferent to Chicago politics reach very alarming 
proportions. ‘The women and the men of native parent- 
age constituted one-third of the entire group of luke- 
warm local electors. The men who were under forty 
years of age were a little more inclined to slight local 
politics than those who were over forty years of age. 
The greatest amount of indifference to the city election 
was found among the colored, the Irish, the Italian, 
and the Russian male non-voters who were in their 
twenties and thirties. Many of the women under forty 
years of age also seemed to take no interest in the 
election. This tendency was most pronounced among 
the young negro, Russian, and Scandinavian women. 
However, the variation in the amount of interest shown 
in Chicago politics among the different age and national- 
istic groups was slight. 

With the exception of the Russians and the Scan- 
dinavians there was a decided tendency among the 
newer residents of the city to slight the mayoralty 
election. ‘The tendency was most striking among the 
colored non-voters who had been in the city less than 
ten years. Three per cent of them did not vote in the 
mayoralty election because they thought it was of 
little importance. Among the white non-voters of 
native parentage there did not seem to be any difference 
in the amount of interest shown by the old and the new 
residents. 

Indifference to the election was more common in the 
best residential districts than it was in the poor districts. 
In the former, 1 out of every 20 and in the latter 1 out 
of every 100 non-voters admitted indifference to the 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA birt 


mayoralty election. About 4 per cent of the non- 
voters who paid over $50 a month for their rent were 
indifferent to the local political situation as compared to 
2 per cent of those living in areas where rents were less 
than $50. In other words, the native whites of native 
parentage interviewed in this investigation, who made 
up the great bulk of those in the best neighborhoods, 
showed a relatively high amount of indifference to the 
election. The colored, the Irish, and the German 
non-voters living in the well-to-do sections showed the 
same tendency. Persons living in the houses and apart- 
ments renting for the highest rates were more inclined 
to give this reason than those living in flats, but the 
home-owners in all neighborhoods rarely gave it. 

An occupational analysis of the non-voters shows 
that the business men, the professional men, and the 
domestic servants were inclined to slight the importance 
of the mayoralty election. The least amount of 
indifference to the mayoralty election was found among 
the small shopkeepers and the traveling salesmen. 
Sixty-seven, or about one-half of those who were indiffer- 
ent to the city election, were housewives. This number, 
however, only constituted a little over 2 per cent of the 
total number of non-voting housewives. 

Indifference to the city election was found to be 
most common among those nationalistic groups that 
were dissatisfied with the local political situation and 
among wealthy whites of native parentage who were 
engrossed in other matters and bored by the frequency 
of elections in Chicago. There was about an equal 
number of men and women in this reason group. 
Most of them voted last in 1922 or in 1920. 

A few typical cases representing each of the national- 
istic groups will show something about the nature of the 
indifferent local-government electors. It has been 


172 ~ NON-VOTING 


pointed out that some of them were Irish. That Irish 
voters would be indifferent to an election in which an 
Irish candidate was running for mayor does not seem 
probable. 


Mr. Thomas O’Brien, a thirty-eight-year-old factory superin- 
tendent interviewed, refused to: vote in the mayoralty election 
because he was not interested. ‘The smaller offices did not interest 
him. He voted only for president. Mr. O’Brien was not a native 
of Chicago but was born in Indiana of Irish parents and moved 
to the city in 1917. He voted last in the presidential election of 
1920. 

In the Slavic neighborhood back of the Stockyards, a woman 
was interviewed who said she was indifferent to the last election. 
Her husband voted in April, but she did not have time to vote. 
She considered the president more important than the mayor, 
and she intimated that she would vote in the next presidential 
election. 

Mrs. Rassmussen, a woman of Russian parentage living in 
the Lawndale community, voted last in 1922. She declared that 
she voted only when interested in the candidates personally. 
She knew nothing about the mayoralty candidates and consequently 
did not take the election seriously. Another Russian woman living 
near by declared that she had no time to bother with local elections. 
She voted only for governor and for president. 


The negroes who were indifferent to the city election 
gave a variety of excuses for their attitude. Some 
found presidential elections interesting and local elec- 
tions devoid of anything dramatic, and there were 
others who were not interested in the election because 
they thought that local conditions were too upset. 


A laborer in the Stockyards, aged twenty-nine, who moved to 
the city from Alabama in 1918, was not interested in city politics 
because the offices seemed to him to be comparatively unimportant 
and the city life went on anyway whoever was in office. He was a 
world-war veteran, and thought that the election of president made 
a great deal of difference. He was much pleased with the president’s 
attitude on the matter of a government hospital in Alabama. 

Mrs. Russell, an elderly negro laundress who came to the city 
in 1918 from Kentucky, did not agree with her daughter-in-law who 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA — 173 


was working at the polls, and so decided not to register or have 
anything to do with local elections. 

A young colored maid working in a downtown store had voted 
for Mayor Thompson in 1919 because everyone in her neighborhood 
was voting for him and talked about how good he was to the colored 
people. She had not voted since that time. Even the presidential 
election had not seemed so important as the mayoralty election of 
1919. Since Thompson was not the candidate for re-election in 1923 
she was not interested in the mayoralty election under discussion. 


Some were indifferent to the mayoralty election 
because of a personal or domestic maladjustment. 
These individuals did not have any special objections 
to voting but their minds were so taken up with other 
matters of such immediate concern that they gave no 
thought to politics. In this group may be put those 
persons interviewed who recently suffered loss of some 
close friend or relative by death. 

None of the members of a certain family living near Garfield 
Boulevard voted in the mayoralty election because their mother 
had died in the registration place. 

Mrs. Arling’s seventeen-year-old daughter had run away from 
her about registration time, and the mother was so distracted that 
she lost interest in the election and in everything. 

The greater portion of persons who slighted the local 
political situation were native whites of native parent- 
age living in the finest residential districts of the city. 
There were persons who did not exactly object to their 
own party candidate, nor did they believe that both of 
the candidates were equally bad, but, nevertheless, they 
were not satisfied with the alternatives offered on elec- 
tion day. Some of these were like one young man 
who had just come to the city and had not been here 
long enough to become interested in local politics. 
Others did not vote because no candidate of their own 
social group, race, or nationality was running for office. 


Mr. Williams, a middle-aged real estate dealer, wanted to vote 
for the best man but would not because he was a Catholic. On the 


174 NON-VOTING 


other hand, he would not vote for a poor candidate, so he did not 
vote at all. 

In the Woodlawn neighborhood between Jackson and Washing- 
ton parks a young teacher was interviewed who said that he was not 
much interested in Chicago politics, and that he was not at all inter- 
ested in Chicago politics in the last election as he thought there was 
little choice between the candidates. He voted last in the spring 
of 1922, and he declared that he planned to vote in the next presiden- 
tial election. 

Mrs. Herzling, who was over seventy years of age and who 
had lived in the city for six years, thought that all women should 
vote. She was herself a participant in the early movement for 
women’s rights. She was specially interested in national affairs but 
was not interested in the last Chicago election. She declared that 
she once entertained Susan B. Anthony, and she added that she 
thought women’s influence necessary to pass laws protecting women. 


It is a well-known fact that there is considerable 
variation in the interest which the registered voters 
show in different elections. In the five-year period 
from 1919 to 1923, the percentage of registered voters 
who voted in Chicago ranged from 13 per cent in the 
primary election of September, 1919, at which dele- 
gates to the constitutional convention were nominated, 
to 93 per cent in the presidential election of 1920. In 
the mayoralty election under discussion, 80 per cent of 
the registered voters participated. The number of 
elections in a given year, the dramatic quality of each 
election, and the conflict of religious, racial, partisan, 
and economic influences in each election are all factors 
which have some effect upon the amount of the regis- 
tered vote cast. 


NEGLECT: INTENDED TO VOTE BUT FAILED 


The persons who intended to vote on April 3, 1923, 
or who intended to register in March but failed are 
called in this study the “neglectful citizens.”’ Table 
XIX shows that neglect appeared on one-tenth of the 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA = 175 


cards handed in by the investigators. On nearly one- 
half of these schedules there was some other reason 
given in addition to neglect. The reasons found most 
commonly in combination with neglect were general 
indifference, fear of loss of business or wages, and con- 
gestion at the polls. These combinations describe a 
situation common among the working people. Those 
laborers who had to get up early in the morning to vote 
usually found the polls congested, and being disinclined 
to get off from their work in the afternoon, they neg- 
lected to vote altogether. There was also a consider- 
able number of citizens who, in addition to being careless 
about voting, were sick, were away from the city, were 
ignorant regarding elections, or were disgusted with 
politics. 

Eight and four-tenths per cent of the non-voters 
interviewed gave neglect as the most important cause 
of their abstention. This makes neglect the fourth 
most important factor according to the interview 
method. The rough estimate of the precinct com- 
mitteemen also gave this factor a high rank. As one 
able precinct committeeman put it: “‘There are always 
many inert, always going to but never doing.” 

What are the characteristics of the non-voters who 
admitted that they were simply careless or lazy on 
election day? ‘The study made of 5,000 cases shows 
that nearly 11 per cent of the male non-voters and 
nearly 7 per cent of the female non-voters gave neglect 
as their reason for not voting. The higher percentage 
of neglect among the males was due in part to the fact 
that there were more men registered than women. 
Neglect was given three times as frequently by those who 
were registered as by those who were not registered. 
In fact, of those non-voters who were registered, about 

1 Appendix A. 


176 NON-VOTING 


1 in 7, regardless of sex, evidenced a careless attitude 
toward voting. On the other hand, only 1 in 14 of the 
men and only 1 in 20 of the women gave neglect as a 
reason for not registering. From this it is clear that 
neglect is a common cause of irregular voting. 

A careless attitude toward voting was more prev- 
alent among certain nationalistic groups than it was 
among others. The non-voters of Jewish, Scandina- 
vian, or German parentage were more inclined to be 
negligent regarding the political process than were the 
citizens of English, Italian, or Slavic parentage. With 
the exception of the male non-voters of English parent- 
age, those of the older immigration were slightly more 
disposed to be careless than were the newer immigrants. 
The white non-voters of native parentage were midway 
between the two extremes. Except among those of 
English or Jewish parentage the proportion of neglectful 
citizens was higher among the native-born than among 
the foreign-born. As in the case of general indifference, 
this probably indicates that the newly naturalized 
citizens take more pride in the privileges of citizenship 
than do those who are born citizens. This tendency 
was most marked among those of Polish stock, among 
whom the native-born were three times as likely to 
give neglect as the reason for not voting as were the 
naturalized foreign-born. 

Not only was neglect more common among the 
native-born than among the naturalized, but it was 
also more common among the young than among the 
old. ‘There was a steady decline in the percentages of 
both the male and female non-voters giving this 
explanation as the older-age groups were reached. The 
most striking contrast between the younger and older 
generation in this respect was found among the male 
non-voters of German, Russian, Bohemian, or native 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA — 177 


American parentage. In every one of these groups 
there were nearly twice as many neglectful male non- 
voters under forty years of age as there were over 
forty. The reason for this difference is that there were 
more young citizens registered than there were old, 
and the young were inclined to take their electoral 
duties rather lightly. 

In contrast to general indifference, neglect was of 
less relative importance among those who had been in 
the city less than ten years than it was among those who 
had been in the city more than ten years. It is likely 
that the relative large amount of carelessness found 
among those who had been in the city for about twenty 
years is traceable to the fact that many in this group 
were the native-born neglectful youths discussed in the 
previous paragraph. Neglect was more common among 
the newer residents of German, Irish, Russian, Bohe- 
mian, or native white parentage than it was among 
some of the other nationalistic groups discussed. The 
numerous elections in Chicago and the great number 
of elective offices discouraged many who tried to keep 
up a sustained interest in politics. Consequently, the 
older residents quite frequently became neglectful. 

The relative amount of neglect in the best and the 
poorest residential areas was about the same. How- 
ever, the ratio of neglect among the men in the best 
neighborhoods was slightly less than that among the 
men in the other residential neighborhoods. ‘This may 
be explained on the ground that there was a close rela- 
tion between neglect and fear of loss of business or 
wages. The latter factor was rarely found in the 
neighborhoods where the prevailing rents were $80 a 
month and over. On the other hand, neglect was an 
important factor among those living in the so-called 
middle-class neighborhoods. 


178 NON-VOTING 


As has been intimated, neglect was very common 
among those whose occupation engrossed most of their 
time and attention. The skilled workers, the clerical 
workers, and to a large extent the professional men and 
the business men were likely to be careless about elec- 
tions. Although nearly one-half of all the neglectful 
non-voters were housewives, the neglectful housewives 
constituted less than 7 per cent of all non-voting 
housewives. Neglect was of considerable importance 
among sons and daughters who had just begun to earn 
their livelihood and who had not yet assumed any of the 
responsibilities of citizenship. 

Most of the “neglectful” electors were young, 
registered, experienced in voting, native-born, engaged 
in clerical, skilled work, or business, and living in a 
middle-class section of the city. 

Since the citizens under discussion did not vote 
because they had other more engaging interests on elec- 
tion day, it will be illuminating to consider what some 
of these other interests were that caused them to forget 
voting. When business men who are more or less on 
their own time fail to vote, it is ordinarily because their 
minds are preoccupied by their business cares. The 
ease with which the idea of voting is crowded out of 
their minds is also an indication of the strength of 
their civic consciousness. 

A young bank manager living on the near North Side was quite 
apologetic for his failure to vote in the last.election. He said that 
he had always voted before and that he intended to vote in the 
mayoralty election but simply forgot it. 

A young insurance broker living in the same community in a 
private house said that he had moved since the last election and had 
forgotten to register in his new voting precinct. He felt that voting 
was a duty, and he explained his neglect on the ground that he had 
been very busy. . 

A young bond salesman of an old Boston family was quite 
interested in politics but he had never voted since he came to 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA — 179 


Chicago in 1920. He had been too rushed to take the time and 
trouble even to find the polling booth. 

Another young bond salesman who lived in the Hyde Park dis- 
trict was registered, but did not vote in the last election because he 
was careless and forgot about it. The rest of his family were all 
regular voters. 


The skilled and the unskilled workers had more 
reason for neglecting to vote than the business men 
because their hours of employment frequently made it 
difficult for them to find the time to vote. Mechanics, 
chauffeurs, and laborers were found who put off voting 
until it was too late. 


A young mechanic, registered in a South Chicago precinct, did 

not vote in the mayoralty election because he had forgotten about it 
until it was too late. He suggested that the booths be kept open 
later than 4:00 p.m. on election days. 
A young machinist living on the North Side voted in the 
February primary, but he failed to vote in the April election because 
he did not remember that there was an election until he read the - 
returns the next morning. 

A young glazier of German parentage living in the same com- 
munity said that he seldom voted unless he was reminded by his 
father. He intended to vote in the mayoralty election but forgot 
about it. 

A young chauffeur declared that he arrived at the polls too late. 
He had been out on a long trip and did not get back until late in 
the afternoon. 

A middle-aged Austrian teamster, registered in one of the river 
wards, intended to vote but he started for work too early in the 
morning and came back from work after the polls were closed. 

Mr. Jenkins, an elderly colored laborer in the Stockyards, 
felt that all the colored people should exercise the right of suffrage 
where they have the opportunity. He had a very large family 
and could not afford to lose a day’s pay. He overslept on registra- 
tion day and then after returning from work fooled around until it 
was too late. He was very much chagrined that his name was 
not on the list of registered voters. 

An Irish laborer, living in the Stockyards district, was not 
painted in very favorable colors by his mother. She said he was a 


180 NON-VOTING 


careless and shiftless fellow who probably forgot to vote. He 
got into one of his drunken stupors on election day and fell asleep 
some place. 


Women engaged in clerical or domestic occupations 
found their hours of work made voting inconvenient. 
If they did not think to make special arrangements, 
they found themselves unable to vote. 


Miss Thomas, a young colored girl who worked nights for the 
Yellow Cab Company, did not vote because she could not afford 
to lose the time during the day from her sleep. 

Miss Mangelsdorf, a young stenographer of German parentage, 
living on the North Side, voted in February but failed to vote in 
April because she neglected it before going to work and could not 
get back from work before the polls were closed. 

Mrs. Havens, a middle-aged lodging-house keeper of native 
American parentage, did not vote because she was busy taking care 
of her house. She said that if the old precinct captain had not 
moved she very probably would have voted, for although she 
always intended to vote, she forgot to unless reminded about it. 
' She looked upon voting as a privilege which women should exercise. 

Miss Law, a colored maid working on the North Side, lived on 
the South Side. She planned to get off from her work early in order 
to register but neglected to do so. The polls were too crowded for 
her to register in the early morning. 


The young people with no gainful occupation were 
quite apt to be careless about voting. In this class 
came the students and those who were just out of 
school. Many students failed to register because they 
did not feel themselves members of the community. 


Miss Hoeft, a “home girl” of German parentage, wanted to 
vote but when the time came she found out that she had forgotten 
to register. She had just become of age in 1922. 

Mr. Peterson, a young man who had just attained his majority, 
was spending his time looking for a job. He had never voted and 
forgot about the election until it was too late. The polls were 
closed when he reached the voting place. 

Miss R, a young University College student, registered for the 
first time in November, 1922, and she intended to vote in the 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 181 


mayoralty election but when the time came she was careless and 
neglected it. 

Mr. Payson, a young medical student living on the West Side, 
had intended to vote but was unable to because on election day he 
found himself in another part of the city. He was well posted on 
both national and local politics. 


The professional workers who did not vote in the 
mayoralty election were likely to explain their negli- 
gence on the ground of mere carelessness. 


A young photographer was registered but did not vote because 
it was inconvenient for him. His alarm was not set early enough, 
and he did not think about voting during the day until it was too 
late. 

A young pharmacist of Polish parentage living near the Chicago 
River did not vote because he forgot about it when he was not busy 
in his drug-store, and when he did think about it, it was too late. 

Miss Lieberman, a teacher living at a fine residential hotel, 
said to herself in the morning she would vote in the afternoon. In 
the afternoon she found herself in another part of the city and could 
not return in time. Miss Lieberman cited general indifference as 
the most common cause of non-voting among her acquaintances. 
She obtained advice as to how to vote from the male members of 
the high school faculty. 


The housewives constituted the most numerous class 
of neglectful citizens. They offered a variety of reasons 
for not voting, some of which were connected with their 
daily routine and others which were not. Some of 
the neglectful housewives voted when urged to by their 
husbands or friends, but when that pressure was 
removed they forgot all about the election process. 


In the Lawndale community, Mrs. Goldstein, a middle-aged 
housewife of Jewish parentage, voted in February but failed to in 
April because she was very busy with housework. She declared that 
she always voted and that on one occasion had burned her cookies 
in order to cast a vote. She considered voting highly important. 

On the South Side, a woman of German parentage was registered 
but on April 3, 1923, found herself too busy with housework to go 


182 NON-VOTING 


to the polls in the morning. After she had finished her ironing she 
went to the polls and found that they had just been closed. She 
boasted of being among the first women to vote in Chicago. 


There were some housewives whose social duties 
interfered with their electoral duties. 


Mrs. Kempf, a middle-aged housewife of Dutch ancestry, 
declared that she was a regular voter and at the time of the mayor- 
alty election she was ready to go to the polls, but a caller detained 
her and by the time she got to the polls they were closed. 

In one of the Polish sections of the city a young woman was 
interviewed who had not registered. She had just moved and failed . 
to register in her new voting precinct. She wanted to register but 
neglected to do so at the proper time. 

Mrs. Marks, a young housewife living in a Jewish settlement, 
forgot to register when she became of age and consequently could 
not vote. She declared that she was anxious to vote, and was sorry 
that she had missed her first opportunity to register. 

An elderly Russian woman, living in the old Austin section, was 
registered but did not vote because her husband forgot to tell her 
about it. She said that she always voted with him.! 

Mrs. Litowich, a middle-aged Jewish mother, declared that 
she usually voted and that she simply forgot it last time. Her 
son, a lawyer, usually reminded her, but she insisted that she 
herself was very interested in public affairs and looked upon voting 
as a duty. 


Several views may be taken regarding the impor- 
tance of neglect or carelessness as a cause of non-voting. 
The voter who “‘just forgot about the election”’ obvi- 
ously holds his electoral duties lightly. If voting had 
been a matter of great importance to him, it would not 
have slipped his mind so easily. On the other hand, 
it has been shown that this attitude is not a habitual 
one. Better publicity regarding electoral matters and 
a change in the hours of voting would certainly decrease 
the amount of non-voting due to neglect. 

1 Tt is interesting to note that in the Hebrew sections the name of the 


husband usually appears on the poll books immediately preceding that of 
the wife. 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 183 


IGNORANCE OR TIMIDITY REGARDING ELECTIONS 

Ignorance or timidity regarding elections did not 
appear on the questionnaires sent out to the party- 
precinct committeemen, nor was it found on the first 
schedules used by the special investigators. Lack of 
positive information about the candidates was the 
reason on the early schedules most closely allied to 
ignorance and timidity regarding elections. The pre- 
cinct committeemen, whose job it was to inform the 
adult citizens in their territory about the qualifications 
of the candidates, naturally did not give much weight 
to a cause which implied a failure on their part. The 
investigators, however, soon found out that there were 
a great many adult citizens in the city who not only 
knew nothing about the candidates who ran in the 
mayoralty election of April, 1923, but who were in 
total ignorance of the simple mechanics of the election 
process itself. [Ignorance or timidity regarding elec- 
tions was rated by the prominent persons in the city 
as one of the five leading causes of non-voting. | 

Table XX indicates the close relationship that exists 
between general indifference and the factor under 
discussion.!. On 229 of the schedules filled out by the 
investigators, ignorance or timidity regarding elections 
appeared in combination with general indifference. If 
the former reason had appeared on all the schedules, 
its total would have been larger as it would have 
covered some cases that were classed under general 
indifference. The common occurrence of ignorance 
regarding elections in conjunction with disbelief in 
woman’s voting is also significant in this connection. 
It is highly probable that the great bulk of the female 
anti-suffragists were also ignorant regarding elections. 
The prevalent attitude among them was that they did 

1 See below, p. 260. ‘ 


184 NON-VOTING © 


not need to bother about politics—the men took care 
of such things for them. ‘The other reasons with which 
ignorance or timidity was found in frequent association 
are disgust with politics, neglect, illness, and failure of 
party workers. ‘There was also some relation between 
ignorance and such factors as absence, insufficient legal 
residence, and poor location of polling booth. ‘The 
variety of reasons with which ignorance was combined 
furnished further proof of its prevalence. Some non- 
voters admitted that they knew little about politics, but 
what little they had heard had disgusted them, and 
others explained their abstention on the ground of 
illness, absence, lack of residence qualifications, or poor 
location of polling booth, professing at the same time 
ignorance or timidity regarding elections. As shown 
above, 7 per cent of the non-voters gave ignorance and 
timidity regarding elections as the chief reason why 
they did not vote. 

A description of the 378 non-voters whose abstention 
was explained mainly on the ground of ignorance brings 
many interesting facts to light. Seventy-seven of them 
were men and 301 were women. ‘The ignorant male 
non-voters made up 4.6 per cent of the total male non- 
voters, while the ignorant female non-voters made up 
8.3 per cent of the total female non-voters. Relatively 
speaking, ignorance regarding elections was twice as 
common among female non-voters as it was among 
male non-voters. It was also confined largely to the 
adult citizens who were not registered and who had 
not had any voting experience. Where it was found 
among those who were registered, it meant rather lack 
of positive information about the candidates than 
ignorance regarding. the election process itself. Among 
the habitual non-voters 12 per cent of both the men and 
women gave ignorance as the cause of their non-voting. 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 185 


This high ratio places ignorance or timidity as the most 
important factor explaining why some adult citizens 
_ never vote. | 

An analysis of the parentage of the non-voters under 
discussion shows that ignorance regarding elections was 
a relatively more important factor among the negroes 
and the whites of Scandinavian, Italian, or Polish 
parentage than it was among the whites of native, 
English, German, or Irish parentage. Practically no 
Trishmen were found who admitted that they did not 
‘know anything about politics. On the other hand, 
many Swedish-speaking, Polish-speaking, or Italian- 
speaking American citizens were found who did not 
know anything about the election process. In other 
words, ignorance and timidity regarding elections was a 
much more important factor among negroes and the 
non-English-speaking foreign-born than it was among 
the English-speaking whites. 

The classification of the non-voters under discussion 
by sex and age groups does not show that there was any 
marked connection between age and ignorance and 
timidity regarding elections. The ratio of male non- 
voters giving ignorance as the cause of their abstention 
was highest among those in their forties, while among 
the women it was highest for those in their fifties and 
sixties. The newness of woman suffrage explains the 
prevalence of electoral ignorance among women of 
advanced years. The middle-aged men who knew 
nothing about politics were either Polish, Russian, 
German, or Italian. The most striking correlation 
between age and ignorance was found among the 
habitual colored non-voters. Over two-thirds of the 
ignorant colored non-voters were in their twenties. 

As might be expected, ignorance and timidity regard- 
ing elections was more prevalent among the non-voters 


186 NON-VOTING 


who had been in the city for less than ten years than it 
was among those who had been in the city for more 
than ten years. The opportunities for education and 
sophistication regarding political affairs in the city are 
many. ‘The present study indicates that some of the 
old residents had taken advantage of these opportuni- 
ties. 

Roughly speaking, the investigators found twice 
as much ignorance regarding elections in the poor sec- 
tions of the city as in the best residential districts. 
This holds true for both the men and women inter- 
viewed. In the well-to-do areas persons were rarely 
found who admitted that they were uninformed about 
the election process. However, there were some who 
complained about the difficulty of getting accurate 
information about the candidates. In the poorer sec- 
tions of the city there were many who knew nothing 
about politics and made no effort to conceal their 
ignorance. 

The great bulk of those who gave ignorance or 
timidity regarding elections as the explanation of their 
failure to go to the polls on April 3, 1923, were house- 
wives. ‘The reason was also mentioned by a respec- 
table number of small shopkeepers, professional men, 
clerical workers, and domestic servants. The business 
men and the professional workers did not say that they 
were ignorant regarding elections but they did complain 
about the lack of positive information about the 
candidates. The skilled and unskilled laborers who 
confessed their ignorance regarding voting were largely 
foreign whites or negroes. 

Ignorance or timidity regarding elections was found 
to be an important cause of non-voting among the 
middle-aged white women of foreign parentage and 
among the young colored women who had never had 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 187 


any voting experience and who lived in the poorest sec- 
tions of the city. It was also found to some extent 
among the habitual male non-voters who had lived in 
the city but a short time and who were engaged in the 
unskilled occupations. | 

Many of the habitual female non-voters of foreign 
stock avoided the entire election procedure because 
their ignorance made them feel shy about it. Many 
wives of naturalized foreigners felt that their unfamiliar- 
ity with the English language and with local election 
procedure made it inadvisable for them to vote. The 
nature of this shyness can clearly be brought out by 
describing a few typical cases. 

An elderly woman of Jewish ancestry, who came to this country 
from Russia in 1899, said that she had never voted because she 
was ashamed to admit her inability either to read or write English. 
She did not want her ignorance of the English language to be made 
conspicuous. 

A Polish woman, forty-nine years of age, who came to this 
country in 1885, did not vote because she declared that she was a 
widow and would not go near the polling place for fear that the 
people would think that she was going there on account of the men 
folks. 

Mrs. Buckhauser, who was born in Germany in 1875 and came 
to this country when she was sixteen years of age, never voted in 
Chicago because she could not speak nor write English. She was 
afraid they would laugh at her at the polling place, which was 
located in a mixed foreign settlement west of the Stockyards. 

Mrs. Rubino, thirty-three years of age, who came to this country 
in 1900, did not vote in April, 1923, because she had never voted 
before and was uncertain whether a woman should vote or not. 
When she was in Italy, “‘women didn’t vote.” She felt that persons 
with a lack of education should not vote for they would not know 
what they were doing. 


In addition to the foreign white women discussed 
above, there were a considerable number of colored 
citizens who felt timid about voting because of their 
ignorance. 


188 NON-VOTING 


Mrs. Turner, a young laundress who had moved from Mobile to 
Chicago in 1921, did not know anything about politics and conse- 
quently did not vote. She deplored the fact that so many colored 
people voted without knowing what they were doing. She had 
seen a ballot and was so bewildered that she did not try to register. 

Mrs. Williams, an elderly colored woman who was once a slave 
and had never been given any schooling, was a habitual non-voter 
because she knew nothing about politics and felt herself entirely too 
old to learn. 


Not all of the “ignorant”? non-voters felt them- 
selves incapable of learning about the political process. 
Many citizens who were unfamiliar with the mechanics 
of voting would vote if someone showed them how. 


Mrs. Foucek, a Bohemian woman who was naturalized through 
her husband’s papers, had never voted, because, as she said, “‘I 
ain’t got the nerve.’’ Her husband told her to go, and she intimated 
that if someone would go with her she would vote. 

Mrs. Davis, a young colored woman living in the congested 
negro district, was a habitual non-voter because she knew nothing 
about voting and declared that no one seemed interested enough 
to enlighten her. Some people voted ignorantly. She would not 
do this. She did not even know the registration date. 

Another colored woman thirty-five years of age, a native of 
Kentucky, knew nothing about the ordinary mechanics of voting 
because her husband was not much interested. She felt that she 
got along as well as those who did vote. No one had ever explained 
the process to her. 


Timidity regarding elections was sometimes a promi- 
nent factor in the behavior of non-voters who had had 
some educational advantages and who knew something 
about the candidates. Both male and female citizens 
just becoming of age and persons who had just received 
their naturalization papers were rather timid about 
starting to vote. 

A young chauffeur of Polish origin had never registered to vote 


because he felt that the young fellows did not care about voting 
and he was ashamed to go alone. 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 189 


Mr. Snow, a negro filing clerk in the Pullman Company who 
had just reached his majority shortly before the election, did not 
vote because he thought he would better wait awhile before voting 
in order to find out something about the process. He had attended 
high school for two years. 

A young man in the old Austin section declared that he wanted 
to have a good job before he walked up to the polling place to cast 
his vote as a full-fledged member of society. 

Miss A, registered for the first time, had had a good education 
and was doing stenographic work. She had followed the election 
issues, had heard both of the candidates, but when the election 
came, not knowing the procedure in voting and fearing that she 
would be laughed at, did not vote. 

Mr. Posen, a retail merchant of Russian extraction, had been 
naturalized in January, 1923, and had taken advantage of his first 
opportunity to register in February. When the election came in 
April he was afraid to vote because he did not know how to go about 
voting. 

A native of Lithuania who had just secured his citizenship papers 
declared that he was getting acquainted with Chicago politics and 
would start to vote the following year. He spoke very little English, 
but seemed to be sincere in attaching great importance to voting. 


There were some colored and some white citizens 
who were timid about voting because their first ex- 
perience at the polls had been of a very embarrassing 
nature. 


Mrs. Butler, a young colored woman, a native of South Caro- 
lina and a resident of Chicago for eight years, had attempted to vote 
in the judicial election of 1921. She had been overwhelmed with 
the long list of names. She did not know whom to vote for because 
she assumed that all judges were educated and one could do about 
as well as another. Since that time she had not returned to the 
polls to vote. 

Mrs. Champion, a colored laundress who had moved from 
Atlanta to Chicago in 1919, registered in 1921 and went to the polls 
to vote. When she entered the polling booth she was so bewildered 
by the long list of names that she folded the ballot without marking it 
and placed it in the ballot box. She had never been back to the 
polls after that trying experience. 


190 NON-VOTING 


Mrs. Tilson, another colored laundress, became so excited that 
when she went into the voting booth she marked her ballot in the 
wrong way. She never had the courage to return. 

A colored barber-shop porter said that when he spoiled his ballot 
on the primary election, his first election, he was told that he need 
not come back on election day for he would not be permitted to vote. 

Mrs. B, a naturalized citizen, said that she had voted once 
and that was enough. It all happened in the last presidential 
election. Her husband had given her all the instructions about 
whom to vote for and how to do it. She thought she understood 
it all but when she was handed the ballot and it was time for her 
to vote her memory failed her and she hardly knew what to do. 
She said that she then crossed off with reckless abandon the names 
of a great many men regardless of party lines, or whether she was 
voting for two men for the same office. When her husband, who 
is a staunch Republican, questioned her later about it, she told him 
what she had done and said that “no doubt the election judges 
would have a good laugh over her ballot.” She was “kidded”’ 
so much about it she decided never to vote again. She lost all 
interest and desire to vote and she “‘guessed it didn’t make much 
difference anyway.” 


Sometimes non-voters were ignorant of some essen- 
tial feature of the election procedure but not of the 
entire process itself. They were unaware of the exact 
operation of the registration provisions of the election 
law, or they had some doubt as to their citizenship. 
Some citizens knew so little about the voting require- 
ments in the state that they believed almost anything 
that unscrupulous party workers told them. 

Mr. Pankuch, an airbrake inspector of the Santa Fe Railroad, 
was born in Hungary and came to this country in 1909. He was 
naturalized in 1920, and voted several times after that date. He 
thought when he had registered and did not move that he did not 
have to register again. He failed to register in October, 1922, 
when the registration was held, and when he went to vote he ‘ound 
that he was not registered. He said that he lost two hours on his 
own time trying to vote, and was provoked that persons like him- 
self who did not read the papers were not informed about the 1egis- 
tration requirements. 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 191 


A middle-aged school teacher living in the Hyde Park district 
failed to vote in the mayoralty election because she believed the 
assertion of the election officials that a new registration list was 
being made and that she could not vote on that account. She 
was actually registered at the time and legally entitled to vote. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Kimske, who was born in Germany but who had 
lived in the United States for thirty-five vears, did not register 
because she was not sure whether she had the right to do so. Her 
parents were naturalized and she claimed that some people insisted 
that she did not have the right to vote. Rather than risk being 
challenged she had refrained from participation in politics. 

A young Polish woman, who became an American citizen when 
her husband was naturalized in 1919, failed to become a voter 
because she accepted the statement of the election officials to the 
effect that she could not vote unless she had voted three times before. 

A colored woman did not vote because she believed the word of 
a Democratic committeeman that her husband’s vote would count 
for both of them. 


It has been pointed out that ignorance regarding 
Chicago politics is quite common among those who have 
been in the city for less than ten years. Many com- 
plained about the great number of elective offices in 
Chicago and the confusing number of candidates and 
rival party factions. 


Mrs. Tell, a young woman who was born in southern Illinois, 
and came to Chicago in 1921, did not vote in the mayoralty election 
because she knew nothing about Chicago politics. She had always 
voted in her home town, but thought it was too hard to find out 
about the men running for office in Chicago. The candidates at 
the last election looked about equally good to her so she did not 
bother about voting. 

Mrs. Farrell, an elderly Irish woman who was naturalized in 
1893 and who moved to Chicago from Milwaukee in 1919, did not 
vote because she found it so hard to get any authentic information 
about the candidates running for office in Chicago. She had always 
voted in Milwaukee and declared that she would not vote in Chicago 
unless she could find out something about the candidates. 

A young bricklayer, a native of Canada, naturalized in Wiscon- 
sin, had voted in Green Bay in 1920. He declared that he had not 
been in Chicago long enough to acquaint himself with the city’s 


192 NON-VOTING 


politics. He felt that it was his duty to vote, and he planned to 
vote when he became adjusted to the local situation. 

Mr. Brown, a colored laborer in the Stockyards who moved 
from Alabama to Chicago in 1920, never voted because he had not 
been in the city long enough to learn very much about politics. 
He felt that he did not know enough about the elections in the city 
to register. His schooling had extended to about the fourth grade. 


The old residents of Chicago as well as the new felt 
that it was very difficult to keep in touch with local 
politics in the city. Some citizens had been accustomed 
to make a careful study of the qualifications of the 
various candidates before they made up their minds 
how to vote. When the pressure of other duties pre- 
vented their doing this, they did not feel justified in 
voting. It cannot be said that these individuals were. 
exactly ignorant about elections. They did not vote 
because of lack of positive information about the 
candidates. 


Miss Julia Rubin, a young woman living in the Bohemian sec- 
tion of the city, said that it had been her custom to attend meetings 
of both the political parties and to hear the discussions of the 
candidates of both sides and then to form her own opinion. Since 
she was prevented from doing that at the last election she did 
not vote. 

In the Lawndale community a high-school teacher declared 
that she was so busy teaching and studying that she had not had 
time for careful consideration of the political candidates and 
therefore did not vote because she found herself unable to make an 
intelligent decision. 

Mrs. Q, who was both a business woman and a housewife, said 
that she did not vote because she did not have time to go carefully 
into the history and qualifications of the candidates. She did not 
believe anyone should vote unless they knew about what they were 
doing. She said that the women who voted the way their husbands 
told them were making woman suffrage a joke. These women were 
merely “echoes.” 

Mr. Majors, an unskilled colored laborer who migrated from 
Alabama to Chicago in 1917, helped re-elect his alderman but he 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 193 


was not interested in the candidates that were running in the 
mayoralty election. He knew nothing definite about either of 
them except one argument against each. His own party candidate 
was indorsed by the wrong newspaper and the other candidate was 
indorsed by the wrong party. He had had little schooling and was 
inclined to be conservative in his social, religious, and political at- 
titudes. 

A Swedish washerwoman, registered in a Hyde Park precinct, 
did not vote because she simply could not decide which was the 
better candidate. She had studied their platforms and had read 
the papers, but unless she was certain of what she was doing, she 
did not feel that she should vote. 


In addition to the citizens who declared that they 
did not have time to find out something about the 
candidates and issues of the mayoralty election, there 
were others who thought that there were no reliable 
sources of information on local political affalrs. Some 
thought that the party propaganda was worse than 
useless, and others had no faith in the political news 
furnished by the daily papers. 


One rooming-house keeper, living on the near North Side, 
would not accept the opinion of others regarding the candidates, 
even that of her husband. Since she had a little personal informa- 
tion about the mayoralty candidates she did not vote. 

A middle-aged weaver, who was born in Germany and came to 
this country in 1891, could not read English, and he would not rely 
upon the German papers for information about local politics. He 
voted in the presidential election of 1920, but he would not vote 
in the mayoralty election because he had no accurate information 
about the candidates. 

A young colored woman, who had been through two years of 
high school, asserted that she was very much interested in politics. 
The party workers had called upon her, and she had questioned 
them about the candidates but she was not satisfied with the 
information given. She wanted to know all about the people for 
whom she voted “‘even though she had only one vote.” Although 
her husband voted, she had not registered. 

One woman declared with great emphasis: “I will not vote 
without being certain as to which is the best candidate. I have > 


194 NON-VOTING 


no faith in the newspaper reports, and I had no reliable information 
about the candidates so I did not vote. An honest voter should 
be well informed.”’ 


The ignorant and the timid electors discussed above 
constitute a miscellaneous group of citizens. On one 
hand were those who knew nothing about the simple 
mechanics of voting. On the other were the highly edu- 
cated citizens who sensed the complexity of the political 
situation and despaired at getting accurate informa- 
tion upon which to base their election-day choices. A 
shorter ballot, fewer elections, special instruction in 
voting, and a better organization of public informa- 
tion are suggested as possible control devices for these 
situations. 


FAILURE OF PARTY WORKERS 


The failure of the party workers as a reason for not 
voting appeared only on the schedules which were used 
by the mvestigators. Not much light on this matter 
could be expected from party experts. However, 
whenever non-voters were encountered who volunteered 
the information that they would have voted had the 
precinct captain told them about the election and 
furnished transportation to the polls, it was reasonable 
to suppose that their abstention was due partly to the 
failure of the party workers. Of course, it might be 
said that nearly all non-voting, especially that due to 
inertia, is the result of the failure of the party workers 
to arouse their constituents. A precinct captain in a 
colored district took pride in the way the Republican 
ticket had been “‘knifed”’ in his precinct by his in- 
activity. He was a Thompson worker and had no 
fondness for Lueder, the candidate selected in the Re- 
publican primary. Precinct committeemen from other 
sections of the city testified as to the importance of 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 195 


their work. One of the interviewers gave the follow- 
ing report of a conversation with a First Ward precinct 
committeeman: 


I had a long talk with a precinct leader of an adjoining precinct. 
His first statement was an enlightening one. He said: ‘People 
don’t vote for candidates; they vote for precinct leaders.” And 
they vote as their precinct committeemen tell them to. He prided 
himself on the extraordinary hold he had on his voters. He knows 
exactly how many votes he is going to deliver days in advance of 
the election. ‘Ten days in advance of the recent election he esti- 
mated Dever’s vote and missed it by only four. It was his boast 
that if he wanted to, he could swing 90 per cent of his votes into 
the Republican party for a given candidate. ‘A citizen won’t vote 
of himself’’ is his weighty comment. ‘You got to ride on his tail 
. all the time, and he will try to dodge you on election day.”” He was 
* also weary of the job. People were eternally sitting on his doorstep 
for favors. It took too much of his time. 


The investigators used in this study could not make 
an accurate estimate of the influence of the party 
workers in getting out the vote because there are so 
many complex factors involved. A failure on the part 
of the party workers was almost invariably combined 
with some other factors. Non-voters who complained 
about illness or poor location of the polling booth would 
add that they might have voted had the precinct cap- 
tain come around for them. Indifferent, ignorant, and 
neglectful citizens would try to place the responsibility 
for their abstention upon the inactivity of the party 
workers. The ignorant citizens were especially depend- 
ent upon the party workers. ‘To separate and weigh 
these factors was an extremely difficult task. 

The actual number of citizens whose absence from 
the polls was explained mainly on the ground of the 
failure of the party workers was relatively small. The 
forty-seven cases which make up this group cannot be 
subjected to too fine a statistical analysis. However, 


196 NON-VOTING 


certain general tendencies can be pointed out. Women 
were affected more than men by the inactivity of the 
party workers. Failure of party workers was given more 
frequently as a reason for not registering than it was 
given as a reason for not voting, but those who explained 
their failure to register on this ground usually had had 
voting experience. The habitual non-voters rarely com- 
plained about the slothfulness of the party workers. 

The native whites of native parentage were the least 
likely to notice the failure of the party workers, while 
the colored and the foreign-born whites of the recent 
immigration were the most likely to depend upon 
instructions from the party committeemen. Among 
the non-voters of colored, Slavic, or Italian parentage, 
nearly 2 per cent felt that they would have voted if the 
party workers had urged them. Small as this pereent- 
age is, it affords some backing to the view that the 
power of the party machine is greater among the colored 
and the newer immigrant groups. The fact that a 
higher ratio of dependence on party workers was found 
among the foreign-born whites than among the native- 
born whites bears out the same conclusion. 

While those non-voters who explained their absten- 
tion on the ground of the inactivity of the party workers 
did not fall into any special age groups, they came only 
from particular neighborhoods. None of them came 
from the best residential areas where the activity of a 
party worker was more likely to do harm than good, 
but the great bulk of them came from the poorer sec- 
tions where the modal average of rents in 1920 was 
between $10 and $14 per month. While there were a 
few laborers among them, they were for the most part 
the wives of workingmen. 

In conclusion, it can be said that the non-voters 
who tried to shift the responsibility for failing to vote 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA — 197 


upon the party workers were largely colored or foreign 
white women who were not registered at the time of 
the election, although having had some voting experi- 
ence, and who lived in the lowest rental areas of the 
city and were engaged solely with housework. 

The individual cases illustrating the failure of party 
workers to get their constituents out to vote can be 
considered from two points of view. One approach 
would be concerned in discovering in what respects 
the party workers failed, and the other in finding what 
were the characteristics of the electors who were 
dependent upon the party workers for information 
about voting. Since this study is primarily concerned 
with the non-voters themselves, the case studies in 
this section will be considered from the latter stand- 
point. 

It has been pointed out that very few citizens of 
native parentage put very much reliance upon the 
information given by the party workers regarding 
voting. However, a few persons were found in some 
of the middle-class neighborhoods who complained 
about the inactivity of the party workers and expressed 
an opinion that they would have voted if they had been 
coaxed. 


A well-educated southern woman, living in a Loop hotel, who 
worked for the Great Northern Railroad, declared that she liked 
to vote and would have voted at the mayoralty election had anyone 
called to remind her about it. She had voted last in Kentucky in 
1915. 

Mrs. Harris, a middle-aged music teacher registered in a good 
residential district of the South Side, did not vote because she came 
to the polls too late, being unaware until the last minute that an 
election was being held. She suggested that notice be sent to the 
voters the day before the election and that the voters be taken to 
the polls. 

Mr. Lowes, a caretaker for a house in the “‘Gold Coast”’ section, 
was registered in the precinct where he made his livelihood but did 


198 NON-VOTING 


not vote at the last mayoralty election because the ward ‘‘heeler’’ 
did not come around as usual. 

Mr. Elson, a shipper who moved from Jowa to Chicago in 1921, 
was not registered in Chicago because he did not know his neighbors. 
He had come from a small town in Iowa and was not used to the 
social habits of the people of Chicago. He expected to be coaxed 
and urged to register by someone in the community. 


There were German-born, Irish-born, and Russian- 
born citizens who freely admitted that they put con- 
siderable reliance upon the activity of the party workers 
around election time. 


Mrs. Mechning was born in Germany in 1874. She came to 
the city when she was nine years of age. She was registered in a 
North Side precinct where there were many other persons of similar 
origin. She said that she was losing interest in politics since the 
Republican Women’s Club was dissolved. Politics mixed with 
social affairs had appealed to her, and she felt that parties were not 
active enough at the last election, even though an election-day call 
had been made upon her. 

Mrs. Ulrich, another German-born woman who came to the 
city in 1913 at the age of seventeen, had never registered. She 
acquired her citizenship by marriage in 1916, and she said that she 
would vote now if someone would “get after her.”’ Her uncle was 
a precinct captain in another precinct, and she had a good command 
of the English language. 

A Russian pocket-book maker who came to this country and to 
the city in 1900 took an active part in politics as soon as he was 
naturalized because of the insistence of the Democratic precinct 
captain. He had always been called for and directed by this cap- 
tain. He believed that one should repay a politician for favors by 
voting for his man. The Democratic captain who had been his 
guide recently died, and not knowing anything about the candidates, 
he did not vote. 


Relatively speaking, a small proportion of the 
women of the newer immigration vote. The women 
of Italian parentage who took an active part in local 
politics were found to be those who had begun to break 
away from the traditions and prejudices of their local 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA — 199 


community. The women of Slavic ancestry could only 
be brought to overcome their timidity regarding elec- 
tions by a considerable amount of coaxing. 

Mrs. Luigo, a young woman registered in a precinct populated 
largely by persons of Italian extraction, did not vote because no 
machine was sent to pick her up and take her over to the polls. 
She was the wife of a lawyer and felt herself slightly superior to her 
neighbors, and declared that she would not walk to the voting place. 

Mrs. Radacek was born in Bohemia in 1890. She came to this 
country in 1901, and became a citizen when her father took out his 
papers in 1905. She voted in the mayoralty election of 1919 
but had not been near the polls since that time because she had no 
friends to go with her. Her neighbors did not vote, so she kept 
away in order that they would not say she was “‘sticking her nose”’ 
in places where she ought not to. She declared that if some women 
would call for her on election day she would vote. 

Mrs. Jurak, a Bohemian woman, forty-six years of age, said 
she would go if her husband would take her to vote, but her husband 
said she should go with the women. When she asked some of the 
women to go with her they refused. She declared that if women 
workers called for her she would go. 


According to the results obtained by the interview 
method the negroes were by far the most pliable 
material in the hands of the party workers. Coming 
so recently from a rural environment in the South, where 
they had never been permitted to vote, they were quite 
ready to listen to whatever the Republican committee- 
men told them. In one precinct alone scores of negroes 
were found who had voted during the 1919 mayoralty 
election and in the presidential election of 1920, when 
the Republican party workers were exceedingly active, 
but had neglected to vote since that time because of 
the lethargy of the Republican contingent in the 
district since that date. Many of the negroes were 
unable to read and write and consequently could not 
keep up with the complicated election calendar in 
Chicago unless they were notified by the party workers. 


200 NON-VOTING 


Mrs. Rydell, thirty-nine years of age, migrated from Alabama 
to Chicago in 1918. She voted a year after she came to the city 
upon the urgent request of the party workers. She had five children, 
all of them under fifteen years of age, and said she did not have time 
to think of politics except when the party workers notified her. 
When the party workers did not urge her to go to the polls, she 
gave no thought to voting. The party workers had been inactive 
in the spring of 1923, and consequently she had not even bothered 
to register. 

Mrs. Fox, a native of Mississippi who came to the city in 1915, 
was a registered voter in 1923. She had no schooling and was barely 
able to sign her name. She could not read the newspapers, therefore 
knew practically nothing about the candidates. The party workers 
had called upon her in former elections and discussed the merits of 
the candidates. In the spring of 1923 they did not call so she 
preferred not to vote. 

Mr. Lunt, a young laborer in a freight house, voted in 1921. 
He did not register for the mayoralty election because he did not 
know when the time came for registration. The party workers 
had previously notified him about registration dates. Mr. Lunt 
had only been to school for a few years, and was not a regular 
reader of the daily newspapers. 

Mrs. Bell was a rather feeble colored woman who used to vote 
quite regularly. She had lived in the city since 1908. She insisted 
that she would have registered and voted if the party workers 
had transported her to the polls. 

Mrs. Sandy, a colored woman thirty-three years of age, told of 
having trouble with her feet. She could not walk any distance at 
election time. Election morning her husband offered to get some 
crutches so she could go to vote, but she said that she would trust 
the party workers to furnish transportation—and ‘“‘they never 
showed up.” 


The testimony of the non-voters discussed in this 
section suggests possible control devices for the indiffer- 
ence and inertia which is the cause of so much non- 
voting. What is done by the party workers might be 
done by those who are interested primarily not in the 
success of a particular candidate or group of candidates 
but in the success of democratic government itself. 


GENERAL INDIFFERENCE AND INERTIA 201 


On the other hand, someone will say that a citizen 
whose political ideas are such that they can be molded 
by the average precinct captain is not an especially 
desirable type of voter. The material here presented 
does not throw an altogether favorable light upon the 
actual operation of the electoral process. However, 
if the democratic form of government is accepted as a 
working hypothesis, the methods and devices employed 
by the party workers should be given careful con- 
sideration. 


CHAPTER VIII 


PRECINCT STUDIES 


In the preceding chapters it has been indicated that 
there were two main classes of non-voters: the occa- 
sional non-voters who failed to vote when the election 
was not dramatic enough to interest them and the 
habitual non-voters who never bothered even to 
register. It has been shown that an unduly large 
proportion of the native whites of native parentage 
living in the best residential sections of the city were 
oceasional non-voters, while, on the other hand, a 
disproportionately large number of the habitual non- 
voters were negroes or foreign-born whites. The dis- 
cussion of the different reasons for not voting has 
brought out some of the situations that were peculiar 
to these two types of non-voters. However, the 
methods of analysis used so far have not recognized 
fully the geographical and personal basis of political 
alignments and attitudes. The efficiency of the pre- 
cinct captains has much to do with the amount of non- 
voting in the particular areas over which they hold 
sway. It is hoped that the community and individual 
studies in the chapter will show something about the 
intimate relationship that exists between non-voting 
and the local social and party organization. These 
studies are based on the letters sent in by precinct 
committeemen and upon the reports of student investi- 
gators. 

The detailed report on non-voting received from an 
energetic Democratic precinct committeeman on the 
South Side not only gave many clues as to the causes 

202 


PRECINCT STUDIES 203 


of non-voting, but it also afforded a guide to the work 
of the interviewers. According to the complete and 
exhaustive records which he furnished, there were 692 
adult citizens in his district in March, 1923, of whom 
421, or 60 per cent, were registered. In the April 
mayoralty election 79 per cent of the registered vote 
was cast. About two-thirds of the non-voters were 
women and two-fifths were registered. These ratios 
were about the same as those in the city at large.! 
From this it should not be concluded that the precinct 
committeeman was merely of average type. An analy- 
sis of the party affiliations or party inclinations of the 
non-voters puts these ratios in an entirely new light. 
Three-fourths of the non-voters had Republican or 
Independent leanings. Obviously, the Democratic 
precinct committeeman was not especially interested in 
getting these people to vote. He presented the reasons 
why the Republican vote in his precinct was so small 
in the following picturesque terms: 

In our precinct the Republicans were formerly “got on the 
books” and “‘got out to vote” through the activity of the local 
representative in the precinct, but the workers have for about two 
years been distempered to the point of inactivity; the recent 
mayoralty campaign found a very poor Republican worker pitted 
against an A-1 Democratic worker (pardon the blushes); the 
Democratic worker carefully avoided whatever might stir a Repub- 
lican (potential) elector to register; the incumbent alderman 
(a Republican) candidate for re-election, was afraid of the precinct 
and let it alone; the Thompson contingent was pretty much 
apathetic recently, and those who “‘had been got regularly to come 
forrard”’ by the application of Lundinian methods felt no urgency 
in the situation devoid of the savor of “‘lang syne.” 

Many Republicans failed to find in Lueder’s candidacy sufficient 
of interest to them to impel them pollward. Many others felt a 
hope that Dever would give an administration marked by cleanness 
and capability in contrast to the eight years of Lundinism—yet 


1 See above, p. 26. 


204 NON-VOTING 


could not bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, who might, 
after all, perform in harmony with the most jaundiced Republican 
idea of Democratic immorality and ineptitude. 

The situations which accounted for the failure of the 271 
adult citizens in this precinct to vote in the mayoralty 
election, as presented by this committeeman, were 
strikingly similar to those found in the present study. 
He pointed out that illness was the cause of a large 
amount of non-voting among the registered women, 
that disgust with politics deterred many men from 
registering, and that general indifference and disbelief 
in women’s voting accounted for the abstention of the 
great bulk of the female non-voters. In fact, he men- 
tioned in some form all of the reasons for not voting 
that were used in the analysis of the data presented 
above. The chief difference between his analysis and 
that made in the present study was in the importance 
assigned to fear of disclosure of age and absence. His 
close connection with the registration of voters in his 
precinct enabled him to obtain information about the 
former factor more readily than could the interviewers, 
and the fact that his district was not a wealthy one 
accounts for the relatively small number of cases in 
which absence from the city figured as a cause of non- 
voting. He described many novel and interesting 
situations that result in non-voting. Some of his non- 
registered constituents were analyzed as follows: 


Two sisters, unmarried, and one mother of two grown sons 
refrain from participation in elections because of nervous instability, 
all three having in recent times been in sanitariums because of 
breakdowns.! 

Three sisters in one family, and perhaps a total of thirty other 
women, shied at the registration hurdle because they were averse to 
declaration and record as to their ages and would not declare falsely.” 


1A case of “‘illness.”’ 


2 A case of “fear of disclosure of age.”’ 


PRECINCT STUDIES 205 


Some men resent the appearance of women on local election 
boards, and, so doing, refuse to register. 

Some women are resentful of the fact that other women (whom 
they sometimes refer to as “‘hussies’’) are sitting on the local precinct 
board, feel slighted because they (the resentful) were not so favored, 
or at least given opportunity to decline such favors; and so ignore 
the whole political procedure. 

A few women folk refrain from registering, thereby deferring 
to the prejudices of their men folk.1 

One man holds aloof from registration by reason of his dis- 
approval of his wife’s action in registering and voting—wherein 
she fails not. | 

Three Socialists on the South Side realize the present hope- 
lessness of their cause so far as arbitrament at the ballot box is 
concerned.” 

Many who did not register are of German blood. I know that in 
some cases they are resentful of what they regard as America’s 
condonation of Britain’s high-handedness on the seas, 1914-17, and 
America’s alertness to opportunities for quarrel with Germany at 
that time; resentful of the accusatory attitude observed toward 
those of German blood by so many of our people during our identi- 
fication with the war with the Central Powers.’ 

Some railroad men are not registered. . Some of them are “sore”’ 
on Harding; most are skeptical of the efficacy of the ballot to 
intrench rights or redress wrongs.® 

Some, taxpayers, feel that the burdens of taxation have become. 
intolerable; looking abroad they can see no relief in sight; despair of 
any cohesive power in the well-meaning majority; and they also 
abjure all political action, mentally committed to the idea, “‘What’s 
the use ?’’8 

One woman, employed and assisting in payment of taxes on 
the home (she is unmarried, lives with parents), has investigated, 
found they are paying over twice as much taxes as the average 
similar property contiguous, and is rampantly anarchistic, refusing 
to participate in a system so inequitable.’ 

Four women who refrained from registering, Republicans, were 
actuated by personal good will toward the Democratic precinct 
committeeman; would have registered and voted the Democratic 


1A case of “disbelief in woman’s voting.” 
2 A case of “‘belief that one vote counts for nothing.” 


3 A case of “disgust with politics.” 


206 NON-VOTING 


committeeman’s preferences had he asked them to do so, but he 
would not presume, for political purposes, on their good will to him. 

One woman is contemptuous of the world in general; is most 
happy when she thinks herself most envied; enjoys withholding 
whatever act of graciousness she may; and influences her sister 
also to refrain from registering; thinks she thereby registers disdain 
of socommon a thing as political participation and spites the workers 
for political parties. 

One woman separated from husband, living obscurely in a rented 
room (father, mother, adult brother and sister only block away), 
is desirous of maintaining an existence as inconspicuous as may be. 
Another woman separated from husband, moved by similar motives. 

One woman, having come to keep house for her son and his 
children—wife of her son, stepmother of the children, having 
decamped—does not register lest it might be instrumental in calling 
attention to the absence of her daughter-in-law. 

One young man finds in his father’s malignant denunciation of 
all persons and all things political (the father is a Belfaster, born, 
bred, and nurtured, saturated in his formative years with the 
virulent prejudices of the majority there, rabidly militant in all 
things) a humiliation that keeps him off the registration lists. 


Added to these were many inert, always going to 
but never doing so. Part of the comments made by the 
committeemen upon the persons who were registered 
-but did not vote were as follows: 


A “‘red-cap”’ [porter] at La Salle Street depot had to be on the 
job too early to wait to vote.1 

Two of our voters on Halsted Street put off voting until they 
could conveniently forego waiting on customers for a few minutes, 
so missed out finally.? 

An ex-lieutenant in the A.E.F., a Republican of a very staunch 
sort, was so “‘sore”’ on the Washington authorities that he would not 
vote for “‘Lueder and the federal crowd.’ 

A man, Republican, found his son, daughter, son-in-law, 
daughter-in-law, wife, all Republicans, strong for Dever—so he 
did not vote at all.? 

One woman, heretofore a Democrat, was prevailed on to switch 
and become a Thompson Republican when her brother got a sinecure 


1 A case of “fear of loss of business or wages.” 
2 A case of “disgust with own party.” 


PRECINCT STUDIES 207 


under Thompson a couple of years ago; has since voted as her 
brother urged, but under protest; urged by him this time to vote 
for Ben Wilson, the Thompsonite alderman, rebelled, and did not 
vote at all. 

One woman will vote only when her son urges. He did not 
himself vote, said to be “‘under cover,”’ his whereabouts of interest 
to the police. 

One young man did not vote—the police would like to see him 
about a stolen automobile; so two of our young worthies were 
“under cover” on April 3. 

A mother and daughter found themselves pulled one way by 
racial ties, another by religious ties, so did not vote at all.? 

A Republican woman, her Democratic father and Republican 
brother both for Dever, herself owner and operator of a big welding 
business and so staunchly protectionist, settled it all by not voting.? 

A woman, now Republican, now Democrat, made it known that 
she wanted to be taken on as a paid worker (on the canvasses and 
at the polls) by either the Republican or the Democratic organiza- 
tion, otherwise she and her daughter were not interested. They 
did not vote. 


An analysis of the causes of non-voting in a par- 
ticular precinct, comparable in completeness to the 
one given above, was made by one of the investigators 
used in the present study. A discussion of the work 
of this investigator will show something about the 
relative merits of the two types of analysis. The pre- 
cinct canvassed was a portion of the oldest and most 
densely populated negro residential area in Chicago. 
The interviewer? who worked in it was able to give 
an objective description of the neighborhood, such as 
could not be expected from a precinct committeeman. 

Today this district, which has a population almost 100 per 
cent negro, is a picture of age and dilapidation. The houses are 
for the most part small story-and-a-half and two-story frame 
buildings, built many years ago for one-family dwellings, but long 
since used by two families and sometimes more. 

1 Thid. 2 A case of “‘indifference to particular election.” 


3 Mrs. Loraine R. Green. 


208 NON-VOTING 


In one sense this section may be called a human junk heap, 
although it is not the section perhaps which contains the largest 
amount and the lowest degrees of wreckage. While many indi- 
viduals in this district are junked for life, there are a number who are 
seeking to be “‘assorted”’ as it were. Some of the people in this 
area are there because they wish to escape attention. Some elderly 
people have lived in the district since the days when it was the fash- 
ionable area of colored people. They lost their social status of 
bygone days, and they remain there leading secluded lives. Others 
live in the district for the freedom that it affords. No one notices 
or cares much about what they do, and they are free to lead their 
own lives. Many are in the district because they came from the 
South and found relatives living there. Some of them dislike the 
neighborhood, but they remain anyway. Others are there because 
they have comparatively low rents. Some are there only tempo- 
rarily until they can find suitable living quarters in a more desirable 
neighborhood. . 

The majority of the people in this district have had only a small 
amount of schooling, and many of the older ones neither read nor 
write. In anumber of homes there are no magazines or newspapers. 
The chief influences in the lives of these people are the churches, 
the schools which their children attend, their lodges, the street cor- 
ners where they congregate, the restaurants, their places of employ- 
ment, and the various organizations and agencies and institutions 
in the community which touch their lives. Their political atti- 
tudes are developed or acquired more or less in face-to-face discus- 
sion groups. ‘The minister, church members, fellow-employees, 
friends, neighbors, lodge members, grocer, the political party 
workers, and the various men’s and women’s organizations all 
play a part in the development of these attitudes. 


On the basis of a special tabulation of the number of 
adult citizens in the census enumeration district that 
coincided with part of this precinct,! it can be said that 
only 45 per cent of the persons of voting age in the 
precinct were registered in the spring of 1923. From 
this it is clear that non-voting was much more prevalent 
in this election district in 1923 than in the city at large. 
Only one-third of the adult female citizens were regis- 


1 See above, pp. 13-14. 


PRECINCT STUDIES 209 


tered. At the time of the presidential election in 1920, 
the proportion of eligibles registered in this precinct 
was 15 per cent higher or about the same as in the entire 
city. Because of factors peculiar to the election that 
have been already discussed, a relatively small propor- 
tion of the registered vote, 46 per cent, was cast on 
April 3, 1923. The canvass of this precinct in July, 
1923, revealed the presence of at least 463 adult citizen 
non-voters, of whom 148 were registered and 315 
were not registered. The 80 registered non-voters 
who were not interviewed had either moved to some 
other part of the city before the election or were out 
of the city at the time the canvass was made. A com- 
parison of the social data obtained in the survey with 
the data taken from the registration books shows that 
_ there was a close relation between term of residence 
and non-voting in this precinct. Newness to the city 
was a cause of non-voting among these negroes, inas- 
much as 78 per cent of the non-voters as compared with 
50 per cent of the registered voters had come to the city 
_ within the previous ten years. Moving from place to 
place and moving from house to house tended to dis- 
organize the lives of these individuals and to lessen their 
interest in political affairs. Youthfulness was another 
factor closely related to non-voting, since three-quarters 
of the non-voters were under forty years of age as 
compared to one-half of the registered voters. The 
voters as well as the non-voters were largely laboring 
men. Nearly all the men worked in the Stockyards 
or in other industrial concerns, and one-half of the 
women were factory hands or domestic servants. ‘Their 
hours of work were such that a large proportion of 
them found it highly inconvenient to vote. 

The reasons for not voting given by the negligent 
negro electors interviewed in this precinct were so 


210 NON-VOTING 


similar to those given above under the heading “colored 
non-voters”’ that it is not necessary to repeat here 
what has been said about the situations which stimu- 
lated non-voting among the negroes.!. Furthermore, 
many of the individual case studies made in this 
precinct have already been cited.? This precinct 
differed from the other colored districts canvassed 
in that the inhabitants were less likely to be out of 
the city, were less likely to lack the legal residence 
qualifications, and were more dependent upon the 
party workers. The other more prosperous colored 
neighborhoods studied contained many Pullman porters 
whose work often called them out of the city on election 
day. ‘The reason why there was such a falling off in the 
proportion of adult citizens who registered and voted in 
this precinct in the three years following 1920 cannot be 
more clearly presented than by quoting from the descrip- 
tion of the party workers given by the interviewer: 

Mr. R, precinct committeeman for the past six years, has lived 
at his present address for sixteen years. When he came to Chicago 
nineteen years ago, the block where he lives had chiefly Irish and 
German people. He has seen all of the whites replaced by colored 
people. He was born and reared in Tennessee. His son, a world- 
war veteran, is a policeman in the district. Mr. R realized that 
there were a number of people in the district with no voting experi- 
ence who have never registered. His wife and his assistant canvass 
the precinct every so often. He said some people have not registered 
because they are questionable characters and they heard that Mrs. 
B, his assistant, is opposed to vice and plans to “‘run it out of the 
district.’ Because of dislike for her they will not register. Many 
of the women object to the location of the polling booth in the pool- 
hall, which is somewhat notorious because of gambling and “‘cutting 
scrapes.” He has advised that it be moved. A large number are 
ignorant, and they hesitate about going to the polls. Most of the 
people go long distances to work and must leave home very early. 
He opens his store at 5:00 and 5:30 a.m. to accommodate the early 


1See Table VIII, p. 40. 2 See pp. 80-84, 138-42. 


PRECINCT STUDIES Q11 


risers. Many of the people with no voting experience have “‘looked 
on” and have seen the voters “profit nothing” by voting so they 
ask, “‘Why vote?” rather than, “‘Why fail to vote?” The candi- 
dates have fooled the voters so much that they as well as the non- 
voters are disgusted. During a campaign when the candidates are 
making promises the party workers canvass the district and all but 
guarantee everything desirable in life. To those opposed to vice 
they promise political favors, and everything is asked, from a license 
for blind peddlers to a position in the City Hall. Of course, after 
election the promises are not fulfilled and the voters are disgusted. 
Mr. R gave as the chief reason for the small vote in the mayor- 
alty election the fact that the ex-mayor was not a candidate. Many 
of his admirers in the precinct felt that they would be injuring him 
politically if they voted so they remained away from the polls. 
Mrs. B, woman assistant captain of the precinct, came to 
Chicago thirty-five years ago from Michigan. She has lived in the 
precinct for sixteen years and at the present address for fourteen 
years. She was clerk of the election committee for three years and 
has been assistant committeeman for three years. She knows 
almost everyone in the precinct personally, and has been admitted 
into homes which were closed to other party workers. The people 
in the precinct told the investigator that she usually calls and notifies 
them of registration date and election date, and then if they do not 
go to the polls before three o’clock she comes after them in her car. 
She was aware of the fact that there are numbers of people in 
the district who. have never registered. She feels that Mr. R is 
responsible for some of the non-voting because he previously made it 
a personal matter, by connecting politics with his retail business. 
Since she has been his assistant she has checked some of his tenden- 
cies in this direction, and has canvassed and recanvassed the district 
until the people know her and are becoming interested in politics. 
She attributes a large amount of the non-voting to the character 
of the neighborhood. There is little or no neighborhood spirit. 
The old residents desire seclusion and do not wish to come in con- 
tact with their “‘crude neighbors.’ The churchgoers wish to 
avoid those of the “gay life.”” No one cares about his neighbors or 
the neighborhood, so he sees no particular reason for bothering to 
vote. Then there are those who feel timid and ignorant about the 
process. 
Most of the people “pick up their opinions in the street,”’ 
for they do not read the newspapers. 


212 NON-VOTING 


A great many members of a neighborhood church did not vote 
in April because of a “‘church fight’? which had been going on for 
some time. Since the death of the former pastor, who was adored 
by some 4,000 or 5,000 members, the church has been divided into 
two factions. Just before the election in April it seems that one 
of these factions secured political assistance, and the church was 
locked one Saturday and Sunday by order of the police. 'The mem- 
bers of the other faction blamed the alderman and his associates, 
so they held indignation meetings and fought him in the election. 
He won the primary in spite of their opposition. They were dis- 
gusted and would not vote in the regular election. 

Both Mrs. B and Mr. R laughed when told that several people 
were depending upon party workers to call but were disappointed. 
Both said that they did not visit at the last election because the 
people were not interested anyway, and they would have wasted 
their time trying to interest them. Mrs. B said that there are at 
least 100 people in the precinct whose vote she can always be sure 
of because she knows their attitudes. 


In none of the other precincts canvassed in this 
study was as thorough an analysis made as in the two 
precincts described above. However, the special tabu- 
lation of the number of adult citizens in the census 
enumeration districts that coincided with some of the 
areas studied made it possible to make accurate esti- 
mates as to the amount of non-voting in typical com- 
munities. A precinct located on the ‘Gold Coast,”’ 
one of the wealthiest sections of the city, was one of 
the local communities so analyzed. In this precinct 
were located, according to the interviewer,! “huge 
mansions and old spacious houses set back from the 
sidewalk and huge limestone apartment hotels with 
shiny brass knobs and liveried porters.” ‘The regis- 
tration book for this “Gold Coast”’ precinct contained 
the names of 386 individuals, 196 of whom were women 
and 190 of whom were men. ‘These registered voters 
constituted 60 per cent of the adult citizen population 

1 Mr. Beck. 


PRECINCT STUDIES 213 


of the precinct. A slightly higher percentage of the 
eligible female electors were registered in this precinct 
than in the city at large! At the time of the presiden- 
tial election of 1920, however, 10 per cent more of the eli- 
gible women in the district had been registered. While 
91 per cent of the registered voters in the precinct were 
native Americans, only two were born in Chicago. It 
is possible that the indifference shown toward city poli- 
tics in this precinct was due to lack of early connections 
with the community life of the city. Although most 
of the electors in this precinct were well advanced in 
years, 27 per cent of them had not lived in the city for 
twenty years, and 75 per cent of them had lived at their 
present address for less than ten years. Great difficul- 
ties were encountered in canvassing this precinct for 
non-voters because so many of the inhabitants were 
out of the city and because those who were at home 
were difficult to approach. People who pay $200 or 
more a month for rent do not like canvassers. Of the 
non-voters interviewed, one-half had not registered and 
70 per cent were women. Most of the non-registrants 
were recent comers to the city, and the registered non- 
voters were the type of persons whose interests were 
likely to call them out of the city. 

A precinct captain, situated in a very wealthy 
section of the city, made the following comment on the 
reasons for not voting ‘that he regarded as peculiar 
to his constituents: 

Another type of non-voter is found among the wealthy class 
who attempt to control the nomination of their favorites regardless 
of the wishes and desires of the people at large. 

They will spend large sums of money for a candidate of their 
choice, but they will not vote, for they do not wish to come in con- 
tact with the masses. 


1 Forty-eight per cent as compared to 46. 


214 NON-VOTING 


This is not socialistic, but it is based on observation of actual 
daily conditions. 

The precinct captain or committeeman who comes into daily 
contact with the voters has more to contend with than the ordinary 
man in commercial life, because the classes mentioned above are 
the ones who are constantly looking for favors and preference. 


The next election precinct studied was located in the 
Hyde Park district near the University of Chicago. The 
inhabitants of this region were moderately well-to-do, 
many of them owned their own homes, and the great 
majority lived in up-to-date apartments renting for 
about $100 a month. There were 229 women and 216 
men registered in this precinct. While the percentage 
of all the adult citizens registered in this precinct was 
the same as in the “Gold Coast”’ precinct, 6 per cent 
more of the eligible women were registered. In 1920, 
the registration for the men and the women alike had 
been much higher. Ninety per cent of the electors 
were native white Americans, born outside of Chicago. 
The most striking differences between the two precincts 
were found in the mobility of the population and in 
the ratio of the registered votes cast.! If these pre- 
cincts can be taken as typical of the wealthy and the 
middle classes, respectively, it may be said that the 
mobility of the “‘middle class” in Chicago was greater 
in 1923 than that of well-to-do, and that the persons of 
moderate but comfortable circumstances were more 
interested in the mayoralty election than were the very 
wealthy. ‘The interviewer who worked in the moder- 
ately well-to-do precinct found the people very courte- 
ous and most of them interested in elections. The 
non-voters differed from the voters in that they had 
not lived in the community for the same length of 

1 Forty-six per cent had not been in the city for twenty years and 79 


per cent had lived at their present address for less than ten years. Seventy- 
eight per cent of the registered vote was cast. 


PRECINCT STUDIES 215 


time, and they were on the average younger. As in 
the “Gold Coast” precinct, the women showed more 
interest in elections than did the women living in most 
of the other sections of the city, largely because of the 
activity of the women’s clubs. 

There were twenty-four precincts canvassed that 
bore a close resemblance to the precincts just discussed. 
The interviewer! who did most of the work in these 
precincts made the following summary of the reasons 
for not voting commonly given by these people: 


The chief reason for non-voting among the men in the best 
residential districts I should judge to be absence from the city, 
especially among the traveling salesmen, the railroad men, and some 
of the clothing-business men. Some of these persons are pre- 
vented from voting most of the time because of absence, although 
their failure to take advantage of the absentee-voting provisions 
would argue indifference to some degree. Many others declared 
that they had once been interested in politics (this in the Sixth 
Ward) but had become so disgusted with politics, particularly dur- 
ing Thompson’s régime, that they would have nothing more to do 
with the whole business—were just plain disgusted. Others said 
it was too hard to find out about the candidates, and they refused 
to vote unintelligently. There were no charges of corruption at 
the polls, nor would such charges be expected in intelligent law- 
abiding communities like this—neither were there any rumors about 
buying votes or coercion at the polls, or even any objection to the 
judges or clerks there. Some men objected to the early closing of 
the polls, especially those who had to leave early for work in the 
mornings and could not get to the polls in time on returning home 
in the evening. Among the women non-voters I found that the 
reasons of illness and absence in the Hyde Park district were 
reasonably sound, for most of the women here seemed to regard vot- 
ing asa duty. In the other districts the women did not seem gener- 
ally to try out the reason “illness” as a mere excuse for getting rid 
of the investigator, but most of them tried to analyze their reasons. 
It was gratifying to find that many women did not vote because 
they felt themselves ill informed about the candidates, and because 
they refused to take what newspapers said, they decided not to 


1 Miss Pearl Louise Robertson. 


216 NON-VOTING 


vote at all rather than vote blindly. Of course, there were always 
those who were indifferent or too occupied with social affairs to 
vote. The number of anti-suffragists is surprisingly small as com- 
pared with foreign-born women. ‘Two women in this group ad- 
mitted that they did not vote because they would not disclose 
their ages, but both were pleasant about the matter and very 
frankly stated their reason. 

One thing that characterizes this whole middle-class group is 
its awareness of being a political element, and the consciousness of 
practically every individual therein that he has some relation to the 
voting process. ‘Therefore, whatever reasons these people have 
for not voting are likely to be conscious and often definitely thought- 
out reasons with a more or less firm basis of conviction. Also, the 
fact that these people are most of them interested in politics in 
some way furnishes a background for their special type of reason 
which is chiefly political. Their attitude is realistic, and there were 
few so-called “‘cranks”’ or disbelievers in political action on theo- 
retical bases alone. In conclusion, this group represents the com- 
fortable class of the city whose reasons for non-voting are due 
either to causes like absence from the city or illness with few 
examples of absolute inertia, and a general disgust with the political 
situation, although the feeling that voting is a duty is strikingly 
prevalent. 


The guests of the outlying residential hotels were 
not as civic-minded as the house and apartment 
dwellers in the same neighborhoods. A large residen- 
tial hotel of the better class was selected as typical 
of the “‘family hotels” in the city, in which are found 
parents whose children have grown up and left them, 
bachelors, spinsters, widows, and divorced persons. 
The construction of this hotel was such that there was 
considerable variation in the economic status of the 
inhabitants, the rents ranging from $14 a week for a 
single room in the old part of the hotel to $700 a month 
for a suite in the new part. According to the lists 
which the proprietor of this hotel was required by law 
to send to the Election Commissioners, and also according 
to the house count, there were about 600 persons who 


PRECINCT STUDIES hit 


regarded the hotel as their legal residence. ‘Three 
hundred and fifty-nine persons, or 60 per cent of the 
foregoing total, were registered voters in the spring of 
1923. When allowances are made for minors and 
foreigners, it is obvious that the percentage of eligible 
electors registered in this hotel was smaller than in the 
surrounding community. Furthermore, in the mayor- 
alty election of April 3, 1923, only 60 per cent of the 
registered vote was cast, which was 10 per cent less than 
the average for the ward. ‘This indicates that a large 
number of the residential hotel-dwellers take no active 
interest in local politics. While this element of the 
city’s population supposedly has more leisure time 
than most of the other elements, it is somewhat 
detached from the life, interests, and problems of the 
local community. 

The reasons for non-voting given by the hotel- 
dwellers were slightly different from those offered by 
more or less permanent residents of apartments and 
houses. The difference may be most clearly illustrated 
by giving the report of an interview which one of the 
investigators! had with an energetic precinct captain 
living in the hotel. 

Mr. K gave four reasons for non-voting: (1) out of the city, 
(2) downtown and did not return in time to vote, (3) forgot it, 
(4) sick. He checked eleven on the list of those registered whom he 
knew did not vote because they were away from the city. Many 
residents in the hotel were in California on April 3. During the 
primaries in February the season was on at Palm Beach in Florida 


and many of the “‘cliff dwellers’? were there at the time and did 
not vote. 

The polls closed at 4:00 p.m. At about 2 o'clock Mr. K 
and his several assistants began a careful checking up and those who 
had not voted were called up and urged to vote. If they had left 
the hotel and could be reached by telephone they were called. 
Many had promised to vote, but did not return from shopping or 


1 Mr. Norman Hayner. 


218 NON-VOTING 


other activity in time. Miss X was cited as an example of this 
type. (Since the polls opened at 6:00 a.m., it seemed to the investi- 
gator that this kind of failure to vote was more a matter of neglect 
or indifference than merely of being away from the hotel and not 
returning in time. Why did they not vote before they left the 
hotel? A long line at the polling booth undoubtedly played a part 
in this.) 

Mr. K stated that the number who forgot about the election 
or who were too sick to come down to the polls was very small. 

He made it his business to see that they did not forget it. In 
the February primaries he received a prize of $50 for the best Demo- 
cratic primaries precinct in the Fourth Ward. Out of 281 voters 
only 8 were for the Republican candidate. (Undoubtedly other 
factors than the efficiency of the organization played a rdle here— 
for example, the near-withdrawal of the Republican candidate from 
running.) 

It is very difficult to canvass in a hotel. Guests call up the 
management about it. Mr. K, however, has lived in the 
hotel for ten years and knows many people there. He begins work 
long before the election, meeting people informally in the lobby 
rather than going from room to room. He has also put notices 
in the mail boxes at the clerk’s desk and under the doors. 

Among those who did not register Mr. K cites a number of 
women who do not believe in voting. Some of them are orthodox 
Jews and cling to the idea that doing anything like a man is lowering. 
Other women fear to disclose their age. One lady registered and 
when asked her age whispered it. When Mr. K told her that he 
had not understood what she said, but “‘ Whatever it was you don’t 
look it,’’ she seemed greatly pleased. 

The attitude of others is revealed by the following conversa- 
tion: “Why shouldI vote?” “It is your duty as a citizen,” replies 
Mr. K. “Don’t think so.” 


The political attitudes of the English-speaking 
foreign stocks were found to be very similar to those of 
the native Americans. Those persons of English or 
Canadian ancestry in the city were not made the subject 
of special precinct studies because they were so few in 
number and so scattered among the native Americans 
that it was impossible to find any precinct in which they 
predominated. 





te a“ 


PRECINCT STUDIES 219 


The inability of certain foreign stocks to use the 
English language with facility has undoubtedly had an 
important influence upon their political attitudes. The 
largest foreign-language group in the city was the 
Germanic. A precinct on the North Side was selected 
as typical of one of the oldest “‘German’’ communities 
inthecity. Prevailing rents in this district were around 
$20 a month. However, the interviewer remarked 
that “everything in the district seemed to be affected 
by German efficiency: the homes, in the main frame 
cottages and two-flat dwellings, while poorly furnished, 
were extremely clean and well cared for.’’! While 60 
per cent of the eligible electors in the precinct were 
registered, the proportion of adult female citizens 
registered was smaller than in any precinct discussed 
excepting the colored precinct. However, the ratio of 
the women registered in this German district was about 
the same as the ratio of adult female citizens registered 
in the city. Since 60 per cent of the adult citizens in 
the area under discussion were of German stock, the 
precinct is fairly typical of the German neighborhoods. 
In 1920, a much smaller proportion of both the men and 
women voted, largely because of their feeling against the 
part played by this country in the war. The mobility 
of the population in the precinct was lower than that 
in any precinct so far discussed. Eighty-three per 
cent of the registered voters had lived in the city for 
more than twenty years, and 30 per cent had lived at 
their present addresses for more than twenty years. 
The 121 non-voters interviewed in this district were on 
the average younger than the voters, but the contrast 
was not as striking as in the colored precinct discussed. 
Thirty-five per cent of the non-voters were foreign- 
born as compared with 32 per cent of the registered 


1 Mr. Swiren. 


220 NON-VOTING 


voters. In other words, non-voting was slightly more 
prevalent among the naturalized foreigners in this 
district than among the native-born. Many of the 
German-born women who were naturalized by marriage 
even failed to register. These women explained their 
abstention on the grounds of general indifference, illness, 
disbelief in woman’s voting, or ignorance regarding 
elections, while the male non-voters interviewed said 
that they were neglectful or preoccupied with their 
work. It is to be noted, however, that in Germany 
since the enfranchisement of women, the percentage of 
the women’s votes is practically as high as that of the 
men.! 

The Scandinavian elements in the city were similar 
to the German elements in that they were among the 
older immigrants and the older residents of the city. 
Although the Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians did not 
congregate in particular communities to the same extent 
as did the Germans, a precinct was canvassed in which 
57 per cent of the adult citizens were of Scandinavian 
stock. ‘The houses in the district were chiefly flats, 
with some modern brick apartments, and the rents 
ranged from about $35 to $50 a month, which was 
somewhat higher than in the German and Irish com- 
munities studied. Sixty per cent of the eligible electors 
in the precinct were registered in 1923. A little over 
two-fifths of the adult female citizens were registered, 
a ratio which was even smaller than that found in 
the German precinct studied. Three-quarters of the 
foreign-born registered voters were Scandinavians. 
These facts, with others, tend to show that the Swedish- 
speaking women in Chicago were not so interested in 
the electoral process as were the white women of native 
parentage. In the mayoralty election of 1923, 81 per 

1R. Brunet, The New German Constitution (New York, 1922), p. 115. 


PRECINCT STUDIES 221 


cent of the registered vote in the precinct under dis- 
cussion was cast, which was about the same as in 
the German precincts canvassed. ‘There were some 
90 non-voters interviewed in the district, 78 of whom 
were not registered. ‘Taken as a group, the non-voters 
were younger and much newer to the community than 
were the voters. Two-fifths of the non-voters had 
lived in the city for less than twenty years as compared 
with one-quarter of the registered voters. The chief 
reasons for not voting given by the non-voters in this 
district were general indifference, neglect, insufficient 
legal residence, fear of loss of wages, and ignorance 
regarding elections. 

The Russian Jews were the first of the new immi- 
grant groups studied in this investigation. In the 
western part of Chicago there is a community called 
Lawndale, coterminous with the Twenty-fourth Ward, 
which was composed almost entirely of Jews, principally 
of Russian descent. The inhabitants of this neigh- 
borhood were mostly of the middle class, each family 
paying around $50 to $60 a month for rent. In this 
ward was found a precinct in which 70 per cent of the 
adult citizens were of Russian descent. A comparison 
of the number registered in this precinct with the 
number of eligible electors listed by the census enumera- 
tors shows that the Russian Jews were about as much 
interested in politics as were the Germans and Scandi- 
navians. Less than one-half of the adult female citizens 
and slightly more than three-fourths of the eligible 
males were registered. In the election of April 3, 
1923, 83 per cent of the registered vote was cast in 
this precinct. The interviewer who canvassed the 
precinct had great difficulty in finding non-voters, 
partly because of the high proportion of the registered 
vote cast and partly because the unregistered adult 


222 NON-VOTING 


citizens in the neighborhood were suspicious of all the 
canvassers. Of the non-voters interviewed in the 
district less than one-half were not registered, over 
80 per cent of them were women, and practically all 
of them had lived at their present addresses for less 
than ten years. An analysis of the ages of the regis- 
tered voters and the non-voters showed that an unduly 
large proportion of the elderly Jewish women were 
non-voters. Many of these spoke little English. 

The most numerous of the newer immigrants to the 
city, according to the 1920 census, were the Slavs. The 
Poles living back of the Stockyards were the first 
Slavic group studied in this investigation. The physical 
aspect of the community was unattractive. The typical 
houses were high, frame, rectangular boxes, streaked 
gray by the rains and smoke, into which three or four 
families were crowded. It is needless to say that as 
far as economic status is concerned, the persons living 
in this neighborhood had the lowest rank of any group 
yet considered. Prevailing rents were around $15 to 
$18 a month for each family. In a typical Stock- 
yards precinct, the inhabitants of which were over 
90 per cent Slavic, only 58 per cent of the adult citi- 
zens were registered in 1920. This low ratio was due in 
large part to the slight interest which Polish-speaking 
women took in elections. Fifty-seven per cent of the 
adult female citizens in this precinct could not take 
part in the presidential election because they had 
failed to register. Some improvement of this condition 
was made in 1923. At the time of the mayoralty 
election one-half of adult female citizens were registered 
voters in the precinct. Eighty per cent of the registered 
vote was cast in the 1923 election. The canvass of 
the precinct for non-voters confirmed the impression 
that was given by analysis of the registration figures 


PRECINCT STUDIES 223 


for the precinct. There were some 116 non-voters 
interviewed, three-quarters of whom were not regis- 
tered. Eighty-seven of the non-voters were women 
and 29 were men. ‘The proportion of foreign-born 
among the non-voters was greater than among the 
registered voters, Strange to say, the mobility of the 
population in this precinct was lower than in any pre- 
cinct studied so far. Forty per cent of the registered 
voters had lived at their present addresses for more 
than ten years. However, the non-voters interviewed 
were fairly new to the district, with the exception of 
some elderly female non-voters who had been in the 
neighborhood ever since they arrived in the country 
whether by birth or migration. The causes of non- 
voting in this neighborhood were vividly set forth by 
one of the interviewers.! 


In addition to the ordinary excuses there were a few in this 
precinct which seemed especially peculiar to the economic and social 
situation. Many of the men worked such long hours that they 
were too tired to read about politics when they came in and did not 
wish to vote unintelligently. Others had worked overtime and 
finding the polls crowded in the morning had been unable to return. 
Still others engaged in night work or simply filling in as extras in 
such positions as carmen were not able to arrange their hours to 
go to the polls. Then there was the usual run of fatalistic citizens 
and those who were disgusted because the alleys were not cleaned. 

But the women were the principal non-voters. Some who keep 
the store feel they cannot leave their work without losing business. 
Others hesitate to go to the polls by themselves. ‘“‘If I could only 
find someone to go with me”’ is the excuse of several. Others who 
had expected to go with their husbands were disappointed when the 
latter had to work overtime. It is the women who have not been 
able to go out of the house and establish other contacts; who, 
after a death in the family, feel it would not be proper for them to 
go out in public. The women have to stay with the helpless mem- 
bers of the family. Just before the birth of a child they have to 
run the gauntlet of the glances of the men, who are so numerous 


1 Mr. Beck. 


224 NON-VOTING 


and before whom they feel “‘so ashamed,”’ that they will not go out 
to vote. Since children come frequently in this section, this, with 
the exhaustion following it, is a principal factor. The larger families 
prevent them from developing an intelligent interest, and the most 
conscientious will not vote when they do not know what they are 
voting for or just because someone tells them to vote in this way, 
and others are glad of the excuse that “they aren’t interested and 
anyway woman’s place is in the kitchen,” while some go along and 
vote just because their husbands want them to. Because the suc- 
cess of prohibition is laid to the women, many men will not let 
their wives vote, and if they do not forbid it on pain of beating (as 
we found in one case), they discourage it by telling their wives that 
the people at the polls will laugh at them because they do not 
speak English, that women’s votes are always thrown out and there 
is no use for them to bother to go, that they have enough to do and 
why should they worry about things which the men had always 
been able to do and which were really their business. 

With the shifting population many do not expect to remain in 
the precinct long enough to be able to register at the next election 
or to vote, and so do not trouble themselves to register. 


The non-voting situation in the Italian communities 
was very similar to that in the Polish communities. 
In the neighborhoods canvassed that were populated 
almost exclusively by Italians, there were some brick 
flat buildings, but the majority of the dwellings were 
frame flats in various stages of dilapidation. Rents 
ranged from $12 to $30 a month per family. Less 
than one-half of the adult female citizens were regis- 
tered. The interviewers who searched for non-voters 
in the Italian communities discovered that there were 
large numbers of Italian women who did not vote 
although their husbands were voters. In one Italian 
precinct were found sixty-six adult female citizens who 
were not registered and who had never voted. Many 
of these could speak little English and could make 
themselves understood only through interpreters. The 
reason why so many Italian women fail to vote may be 
shown by the following interesting case study: 


PRECINCT STUDIES | 225 


Mrs. Caruso was an Italian who spoke English very imperfectly. 
She had lived in Chicago twelve years and had not voted once in 
that time. Previous to coming to Chicago, the family was resident 
in South Wilmington, near Herrin, Illinois, where her husband was 
a miner. Here she had never voted either. Her chief reason for 
not voting seemed to be the fact that she never started and could 
not bring herself to begin, just did not want to vote, but she said 
her husband voted at every election, her neighbors voted, and they 
urged her to vote, but she just did not want to vote. Her husband 
took the Chicago papers, read, went to political meetings, and she 
said she just let him represent the family. Very soon she would 
have a boy old enough to vote, and then ‘‘I’ll have two voters,” as 
she expressed it. She said the voting booth was near and all condi- 
tions surrounding the polls were satisfactory, but she preferred to 
stay at home and do her work, and look after the family. She 
believed it all right for women to vote, and her husband did not 
object, but she just never started and was not going to begin. 

This was evidently a case of habit, so often found among the 
foreign-born and older people. There was evidently no reason under 
the sun why Mrs. Caruso did not vote except that she never got 
started, never broke her habit of staying at home. Not even the 
presidential campaign interested her, as she said she would not 
vote in November, 1924. . 


In some of the cosmopolitan sections of Chicago, 
there were neither racial, cultural, nor nationalistic 
bonds to unite the heterogeneous elements of the popula- 
tion. The people who were carrying on business of a 
questionable nature sought protection in the cosmopoli- 
tan areas because there they encountered few restraints, 
and those persons who were on the verge of pauperism 
lived next to them because they had no other place to go. 
Intermingled with the unfortunates living in the depre- 
ciated residential areas of the First Ward of Chicago 
were the poor and the wealthy transient hotel-dwellers. 
The political attitudes of hobos who found their homes 
in the “‘flophouses”’ immediately outside of the central 
Loop business section of Chicago have been described 
by a careful student of their problems. 


226 NON-VOTING 


What is the status of the hobo as a voter? He seldom remains 
in one place long enough to acquire legal residence. His work, 
because of its seasonal character, often takes him away from his 
legal residence just at the time when he should be there to register 
or vote. Whether he has a desire to cast his ballot or not, he is 
seldom able to do so. 

A canvass of thirty-five Hobohemian hotels in Chicago has 
shown that about a third of the guests are voters. In March, 1923, 
there were 3,029 registered voters from these hotels, which have a 
total capacity of 9,480. Many of these, though they are in the city 
only in winter or for a few weeks at a time, manage to maintain a 
residence here and, if they are in the city during an election, they vote. 

Charges are even made that tramps and hobos sell their votes, 
that they often engage in “‘repeating.”” There is not as much ground 
for such charges as one would expect. The average tramp does not 
have the courage to take the chances that the “‘repeater’’ must 
expect torun. He realizes also that he is always under more or less 
suspicion even when he is going straight, and this serves as a brake. 

Homeless men as a group make much of the fact that they are 
excluded from the ballot, and they remind all who have the patience 
to listen that the exclusion is unjust because they perform an impor- 
tant and legitimate function in the labor world. They seem to 
protest against their exclusion more than to demand the ballot. 
One man said that he did not know if he would vote if he had a 
chance, “‘but it’s the principle of the thing.’”! 


The material gathered in the present study agreed 
generally with the foregoing analysis. There were 
more non-voters in ““Hobohemia”’ than in the settled 
communities. However, it was discovered that the 
amount of corruption in elections was greatest in the 
precincts where there was a large floating population. 
A precinct captain in the “Home Guard Area”’ of 
Chicago’s ““Hobohemia,’’ who was reputed to have said 
that the dollar always got the vote, described his 
bailiwick in his own handwriting as follows: 

This precinct, mostely all Rooming Houses floating pouplation 
50 pret. removals every year all what you call floating pouplation. 


1 Nels Anderson, Zhe Hobo (Chicago: The University Press, 1923), 
pp. 151-52. 


PRECINCT STUDIES 22 


The bonified residance people all register and mostely all of them 
vote, in this prect. you half to go out and hustle them in. It is 
hard to tell who is regirsted and who are not. I have no check on 
them.! 


The search for non-voters in the precincts discussed 
so far was not difficult because of a lack of non-voters. 
In each precinct there were a sufficient number of 
persons who stayed away from the polls on election day 
to make the task of the investigator fairly easy. There 
were some precincts, however, where the interest shown 
in elections was so great that the discovery of non- 
voters was made a tedious process. The combination 
of racial, social, and political factors that produced 
this result in certain of the neighborhoods canvassed 
is of interest in understanding how voting may be 
stimulated. 

In nearly all of the distinctly “‘Irish”’ settlements 
surveyed an extraordinary amount of interest was 
shown in voting. This was especially true in a certain 
precinct near the Stockyards, two-thirds of the inhabit- 
ants of which were of Irish extraction. The people 
in this district lived in flats or “‘cottages”’ which rented 
for about $20 a month. The proportion of both the 
male and female adult citizens that were registered in 
this precinct in 1923 was much greater than in any of 
the other districts so far described.2 Twenty-six per 
cent more of the adult citizens were registered in the 
district than in the city at large. The causes of this 
great interest in politics, greater in 1923 than in 1920, 
were varied. The mobility of the population in the 
district was much lower than in some of the native 
American districts that have been discussed. Nearly 
75 per cent of the registered voters had lived in the city 


1 The spelling is reproduced as in the original. 


2 Over 90 per cent of the adult male citizens were registered. 


228 NON-VOTING 


for over twenty years. The religion, racial origin, and 
personality of the Democratic candidate for mayor also 
had considerable to do with the size of the vote polled 
in the particular election. Close observation of the 
precinct while an election was going on showed that the 
local party organization was highly efficient. At any 
rate, the interviewer in search of non-voters in the 
district had a hard job. Of the fifty-one non-voters 
interviewed, only one-half were of Irish extraction and 
most of these were unregistered women. A few of the 
Irish women in the precinct were indifferent, some of 
them were anti-suffragists, but the balance were all 
voters. 

It has already been indicated that there were certain 
sections of the city populated largely by Russian Jews 
in which non-voting was a rare phenomenon.! In the 
Twentieth Ward, where there were more men registered 
in 1920 than there were adult male citizens, a precinct 
was found in which over 90 per cent of the registered 
vote was cast in the mayoralty election. ‘The cause of 
the great interest in politics shown by the inhabitants 
of this district was largely economic. Most of the 
people in the neighborhood relied upon the Maxwell 
Street market for making their livelihood, and they 
could not afford from the standpoint of their business 
to be indifferent to the political powers that controlled 
the appointment of the market master. The close 
relationship between economics and politics in the 
precinct was also evident in the causes of non-voting 
that were discovered by the interviewer: 

The alderman is certain that lack of interest in public affairs is 
no longer an important factor in the northwest part of the ward. 


The principal cause of non-voting is, he declares, fear of loss of busi- 
ness, and he divides the persons so affected into three groups. 


1 See above, pp. 25-26. 


PRECINCT STUDIES 229 


There is a large group of peddlers who leave for their routes very 
early and return very late. Few of this group feel that the expres- 
sion of their opinion through the ballot box compensates them for 
the loss of several hours of peddling. The second group is com- 
posed of small shopkeepers who themselves attend to their stores. 
Since voting would necessitate the closing of their shops, many of 
this type prefer to lose their votes. A third group is that of busi- 
ness men, always requiring “‘favors”’ from both parties and therefore 
unwilling to choose between them. 


Near the neighborhood discussed above was a sec- 
tion bordering the Chicago River which was predomi- 
nately Czech. In this section was a precinct in which 
an extraordinarily large proportion of the adult citizens 
were registered and an unusual percentage of the regis- 
tered vote was cast.. At the time of the mayoralty 
election, 90 per cent of the adult male citizens and 
60 per cent of the adult female citizens in the precinct 
were registered. The peculiar factors that contributed 
to this condition were an active neighborhood club 
and an energetic local party organization. 

In one of the Italian precincts canvassed there were 
more men registered in 1920 than there were adult 
male citizens according to a special tabulation made 
by the, census office. The precinct was in one of the 
most densely populated sections of the city, and con- 
tained a larger number of aliens than citizens. The 
party workers not only were active in getting the 
inhabitants of the district to take out naturalization 
papers, but performed many other services as well. 
It was observed at a special election in 1924 that those 
who were under obligations to the local party organiza- 
tion voted faithfully as they were told. ‘The non-voters 
in the precinct were few and far between. 

A strong local party organization is not necessarily 
built upon some racial tie. In a cosmopolitan neigh- 
borhood immediately outside of the business district, 


230 NON-VOTING 


there was a precinct in which there were naturalized 
Poles, Germans, Italians, Swedes, Canadians, English- 
men, and some native-born Americans. Eighty per 
cent of all the people living in the precinct were regis- 
tered. Of the 428 registered voters in the precinct in 
1923 only one-third were women. The 1920 census 
figures show that the normal ratio between men and 
women did not exist in the community. On April 3, 
1923, nearly 100 per cent of the registered vote in this 
precinct was cast. The interviewer who canvassed 
this precinct found after some difficulty 51 non-voters, 
the greater portion of whom were not registered. Nearly 
all of them complained that corrupt election practices 
were common in the precinct. 

The studies given above show that nationality, 
neighborhood ties, and the efficiency of the local party 
organization have a direct relation to the proportion of 
non-voters in a given precinct. In both the presidential 
and the mayoralty elections the adult female citizens 
of German, Polish, Scandinavian, Russian, and Italian 
stock showed less interest in voting than did the women 
of native-white or Irish stock. ‘Thenative white women 
who had time and leisure at their disposal frequently 
made politics one of their social activities. It is inter- 
esting to note that the ratio of women registered in some 
of the precincts inhabited largely by foreigners was 
greater in 1923 than in 1920. On the other hand, both 
the men and women of native white parentage living 
in the best residential neighborhoods showed much more 
interest in the presidential election than in the local 
election. This falling off of political interest was espe- 
cially marked in the very wealthy districts and in the 
expensive residential hotels. The adult citizens in 
certain Irish, Bohemian, Italian, and cosmopolitan 
precincts showed a great fondness for voting in local 


PRECINCT STUDIES 231 


elections as well as in national elections, due partly 
to the efficiency of the local party workers and partly to 
racial, economic, and social factors. ‘The variation in 
the proportion of negroes who voted in the presidential 
and in the mayoralty election demonstrated how easy » 
it is for the precinct captains to depress the amount of 
voting. The failure of half of the negroes who were 
registered to vote in the local election was a temporary 
condition which was altered the following year. In 
other words, the amount of voting found in a given 
community varied directly with the political activity 
of the local leaders. 


CHAPTER IX 


METHODS OF CONTROLLING 
NON-VOTING 


Since the situations under which non-voting occurs 
have been canvassed, in a particular instance, it is now 
important to inquire into the methods by which non- 
voting may be controlled. To what extent and by 
what methods may voting be stimulated or, if so desired, 
depressed? From the scientific point of view, how 
may the typical situations which have been here 
described be increased, diminished, exaggerated, or 
reduced? Is it possible to remove the obstacles to 
voting and to increase the number of voters, and if so, 
what means are most effective for this purpose? This 
is a question that may best be determined by actual 
experiment in a series of specific cases, and the nature 
of such experiments will later be discussed. There are, 
however, certain general lines of action that are indi- 
cated by observation and insight. Without under- 
taking to exhaust the possibilities of accomplishment in 
this direction, some of the more obvious probabilities 
may be canvassed. | 

We might distinguish between the methods appro- 
priate for enlisting the interest of (a) the non-naturalized 
person, (b) the habitual voter who is a citizen but not 
registered (in cases where registration is required), 
. and (c) the registered voter who does not actually vote. 
For the present purposes, however, attention will be 
directed here to the general problem of developing a 
larger registration and of bringing out those who are 
registered. 

232 


~<~— pa 


METHODS OF CONTROLLING NON-VOTING 233 


Some of the administrative obstacles to voting may 
readily be removed. In the case of congestion at the 
polls, the method is that of providing more adequate 
facilities, especially during the crowded hours of the 
morning. Particularly during inclement weather con- 
siderable numbers are turned away by the sight of the 
long line of waiting voters, and one experience of this 
kind may carry over to another time when there may 
be no real congestion. Overcoming this obstacle is 
merely a matter of more efficient administration of 
voting facilities.! 

In Chicago a change in the voting hours would 
beyond question increase the number of voters. The 
present arrangement provided for the opening of the 
polls at six o’clock in the morning and their closing at 
four o'clock in the afternoon (except in the primaries, 
when five o’clock is the closing time). In view of the 
fact that large numbers of voters work at a distance 
from their homes, and do not return until after four 
o clock, many of them are thus eliminated. In case 
of congestion at the early morning hour, or of lateness 
on the part of the intending voter, the vote is lost. 
The voter may intend to return before four o’clock, 
but he may not be able to do so or may neglect it; and in 
either case the ballot is not cast. An extension of the 
voting hours to six o'clock or even until five o’clock 
would have the effect of increasing materially the 
number of voters.2. This plan would diminish the non- 
voting attributed either to congestion at the polls 
or to intention to vote but neglect to do so. 


1JIn some jurisdictions the use of temporary polling booths has been 
found convenient and satisfactory. The movable polling shelters are 
located on the sidewalk. 

2 The voting hours in New York are 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 P.m.; in Phila- 
delphia, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 P.m.; in Boston, 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 P.m.; in 
Ohio, 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. 


234 NON-VOTING 


Under an old law of Illinois the voter was allowed 
to take two hours off for the purpose of voting and that 
without deduction of pay. The purpose of this enact- 
ment! was to make possible necessary absences from 
business oremployment. A recent decision of the court 
has held the part of this act providing for payment of 
wages during absence unconstitutional,” and hence the 
worker no longer has this guaranty of the time necessary 
for casting the ballot. 

*‘Absence,”’ frequently found as a reason for non- 
voting, is by no means an insuperable obstacle, but 
may readily be overcome by an absent-voting law.2 In 
fact, such a law is on the statute books of Illinois and 
has been since 1917. The statute permits an elector 
who expects to be absent on primary or election day 
to make application to the Election Commissioners 
(not less than ten nor more than thirty days prior to 
the election) for a ballot, this ballot the absent voter 
may mark before an officer authorized to administer 
the oath, and the ballot duly certified by the officer is 
then returned to the Election Commissioners. Little 
use has been made of this, however, as the total num- 
ber voting under law at the election of 1923 was only 
226. A great morning newspaper recently sent out a 
reporter to ask whether the citizens favored an absent- 
voting law, and neither inquiring reporter nor answer- 
ing citizen seemed to be aware of the existence of the 
statute. 

1 Chap. 646, Nos. 228 and 387. 


2 In the case of People vs. C. M. & St. P. R.R. Co., 306, Ill. 486 (1923), 
the court held that the sections giving the employee the right to take two 
hours to vote were valid, but that the requirement that he be paid for his 
time was a deprivation of property without due process of law and a denial 
of the equal protection of the laws. 


3 On absent-voting laws see P. O. Ray, American Political Science 
Review, XVIII, 321-25. 


METHODS OF CONTROLLING NON-VOTING 235 


The provisions in this state are perhaps unnecessarily 
cumbersome, but in any case the absent voter’s law 
alone is not adequate as a means of attracting the non- 
voter, and some other appeal must be made to arouse 
his interest to a point where he will avail himself of the 
opportunity which many thousands of voters might 
utilize if they would. The ways and means of broad- 
casting information regarding this law, and of generating 
interest enough to act under it, are a part of a general 
campaign directed against non-voting. Newspapers 
might appropriately direct attention to the law just 
before the time expires for the request for the certificate, 
and various organizations where absence from the city 
is common might supplement the warning of the press. 
In political meetings the same effort might appropri- 
ately be made. 

Inability to vote because of eontfiniient by a help- 
less member of the family is readily met by the precinct 
party official, and there is no sound reason why with 
proper organization anyone should be kept from the 
polls by such a condition. It would always be an easy 
thing for the party worker to find someone to relieve 
the voter for the moments necessary to journey to the 
polls and back, a short time in a congested urban center. 
Civic organizations might render the same service, if 
they were organized for this purpose and were minded 
to render this type of aid to their fellow-citizens. This 
difficulty diagnosed by our inquiry offers no really 
serious obstacle. 

It is in the area designated as “general indiffer- 
ence,” “‘inertia,”’ or “‘disbelief’’ that the most serious 
difficulties are encountered in the effort to obtain a 
100 per cent vote. However, some of the obstacles even 
here might yield without great effort to careful treat- 
ment. The case known as “ignorance and timidity”’ 


236 NON-VOTING 


is an example of this. This situation is based upon 
the diffidence of the new voter, or of the newly enfran- 
chised woman voter, or of the older voter who confronts 
some new situation. It is difficult for the experienced 
political worker to realize the timidity with which many. 
voters approach the ballot. Many persons shrink from 
the polls, or come to the polling place with many 
vague misgivings. ‘There seems to have been built up 
around the ballot a tradition that there is some mystery 
in voting, some survival, it might almost seem, of the 
ancient superstition of the divinity of kings and govern- 
ments. This tradition acts as powerfully on the 
educated as it does on those less well schooled. In 
fact, the effect is sometimes greater, for the ignorant 
are not unwilling to ask the way, while the educated 
may be too proud to inquire. ‘The truth is that there is 
nothing very difficult or complicated about the process 
either of registering or of voting, nothing at any rate 
which may not be readily learned by anyone of mature 
years in a few minutes at the most. ‘The difficulty is 
not measured, however, by the actual complication of 
the process, but by what the voter thinks of it, for if 
he avoids the polls because of an imaginary trouble 
the result is exactly the same as if it were real. 

Much might be done to remove these doubts and 
fears by organized campaigns for greater familiarity 
with the mechanism of voting, with the form of the 
ballot, and with voting and registration procedure. 
For this purpose the newspapers offer an invaluable 
medium. ‘The moving picture is another possible means 
of illustrating the way of voting, which might be very 
clearly shown in this manner. Billboards even might 
be used. Sample ballots might be much more freely 
circulated among voters and much earlier than they 
~ usually are. Through the newspapers or the school 


METHODS OF CONTROLLING NON-VOTING 237 


children, or through the police or other agency,. it 
would be possible to place with every voter a sample 
ballot and a card with simple instructions in regard to 
voting.' Political meetings might be utilized for the 
same purpose. It is not beyond reason to imagine a 
campaign so successfully conducted that no voter in 
the constituency would be uninformed upon the way to 
vote, and thus, whatever else might remain, this cause 
of non-voting would be removed. Here is a large field 
for political education of a very practical kind by civic 
organizations interested in community welfare. Un- 
questionably, energetic and tactful efforts would be 
rewarded by a material increase in the number of voters, 
and, what is more significant, by greater and more 
intelligent interest in public affairs on the part of 
considerable groups in the city. __ 

The length of the ballot and the necessity of obtain- 
ing some information regarding the candidates or the 
issues constitute a much more serious problem, and one 
that can be controlled only with great difficulty. In 
time, the ballot will doubtless be shortened and simpli- 
fied to a point where the voter will not be overawed by 
the proportions of the blanket ballot, or the task of 
finding out something about the various candidates 
whose names appear on the ticket. In the particular 
election under consideration, however, the _ ballot 
was very short, and could not of itself have been the 
cause of any considerable amount of non-voting. ‘The 
memory of other struggles with the ballot may, of 
course, have had a surviving and deterrent effect. 

The publicity pamphlet employed in some states 
may be used for the purpose of spreading information 


1 An interesting suggestion for voting by mail (postal voting), and not 
otherwise, is made by the Mail Ballot Movement, 104 West Monroe Street, 
Chicago, Illinois. This destroys, however, many of the safeguards against 
fraud and corruption. 


238 NON-VOTING 


regarding candidates and issues.!. This is a pamphlet 
in which all candidates are allowed, for a nominal 
sum, to insert their photographs and a short statement 
of their record and platform. ‘These pamphlets are 
printed by the government, and circulated to every 
voter in the constituency. ‘That this solves the prob- 
lem of amply informing the voter cannot, however, 
be contended, although it unquestionably gives him 
more data than he would otherwise possess. Here the 
cost of the undertaking must be balanced against the 
prospect of obtaining commensurate results.? 
Innumerable suggestions are made in the form of 
special devices for stimulating the voting process. 
Among the more significant of the mechanical plans 
for this purpose are the reorganization of the registra- 
tion system and the system of compulsory voting. 
The reorganization of the registration system Is directed 
toward the universal registration of all persons eligible 
to vote. It is proposed that the registration be 
carried on by agents of the government who place 
the names of voters upon the registry lists, instead of 
leaving the initiative to the voter as at present and 
requiring personal appearance and registration at 
intervals of two years, as is the law in Illinois at the 
present time and in many other places. If election 
officials prepared lists of voters from a canvass of the 
precinct or a revision of old lists, the number of those 


1 For a discussion of the subject reference may be made to the following 
titles: G. H. Haynes, “The Education of Voters,” Political Science Quar- 
terly, XXII, 484; XXVI, 32. Richard W. Slocum, Publicity Pamphlets 
(unpublished manuscript), Swarthmore College, 1922. 


2See the admirable discussion by Joseph P. Harris, Registration for 
Voting in the United States, 1923; Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency, 
The Proposed System of Registering Voters and Canvassing Registration Lists 
in Chicago, 1923 (unpublished manuscript). 


3 Harris, op. cit. 


METHODS OF CONTROLLING NON-VOTING 239 


registered would, of course, be very greatly increased, 
and possibly the number of voters would be enlarged. 
In any event, none would be deprived of the vote 
because of inability to register on account of absence 
or illness or other cause.! Every eligible voter would 
be on the lists at all times. . 

This system is used in many foreign countries at the 
present time, and results in much larger registration of 
voters. Los Angeles makes use of a system in which the 
registration is carried on by officials who make a house- 
to-house canvass and register the voters as they go. 
The voters are required to sign individual duplicate 
affidavits which are used as a means of identifying them 
on election day. ‘This results in a much higher regis- 
tration than is common in cities generally. 

The system of registration without personal appear- 
ance has been used in some jurisdictions, but with dis- 
astrous results in the way of padded rolls, from which 
names were seldom removed. Philadelphia was a 
notable example of such an unfortunate outcome. 
Whether the time has not come for official registration 
without the appearance of the voter at the polls is, 


1 Voters unable to register may now qualify by appearance before the 
Election Commissioners, under certain conditions. 

“From and after the November election in each even numbered year 
and until and including the thirtieth day of September in the next following 
even numbered year, the office of the Board of Election Commissioners shall 
be open during business hours of each day, except Sundays and legal holi- 
days, and excepting the twenty-eight (28) days immediately preceding any 
regular election, for the purpose of registering applicants for registration. 
Such applicants shall be put under oath by said board or its duly authorized 
clerk and shall answer the same questions as are required to be answered at 
general registrations in Section 3 of this Article III, and such names and 
answers shall be entered by such board in the general registers under the 
proper headings in such registers. All such voters so registered and other- 
wise qualified shall be entitled to vote at all elections and primaries as if 
registered at the general registration as provided in this act” (Revised 
Statutes, Ill., 1923, chap. 46, Sec. 215, p. 903). 


240 NON-VOTING 


however, a subject for serious consideration. If 
proper checks could be provided, the official registration 
would unquestionably increase the number of voters, 
since many are omitted from the lists because of failure 
to register, either because of absence or because of the 
lack of drive to get on the books at the right time. 
The attention of the voter would be attracted by the 
canvasser, and he would be placed upon the list with 
the minimum of inconvenience and effort on his part. 
Even if no such change were made, there is still 
opportunity for important modifications of present 
practice which would result in a diminution of non- 
voting. An entirely new registration as often as every 
two years is not necessary, and often results in the omis- 
sion of many names from the lists. A new registration 
at the time of the presidential election every four years 
would answer all the purposes of a registry list, and 
many voters now omitted would, without doubt, be 
found on the lists. At present it is quite possible for a 
voter who has been on the books for a quarter of a 
century to be deprived of his vote because of absence 
from the city at the time of registration, of illness at 
the time of registration; of business engagement, or 
even of negligence. Few people remember just when 
the new registration is made, and often the voter is 
disfranchised when he thinks he is safely registered. 
A voter, for example, moves into a precinct in the 
spring of 1924. He registers and assumes that he is on 
the list for some time to come, but unless he registers 
again in the fall he will be unable to vote in the presi- 
dential election. Of course no system can be made 
proof against negligence of voters, but two years seems 
an unreasonably short period for new registration. 
More adequate provision for transfer of registration, 
as used in Milwaukee, would also aid in reducing the 


METHODS OF CONTROLLING NON-VOTING 241 


number of non-voters. Many thousands in Chicago 
lose their votes unnecessarily when moving from one 
precinct to another. The citizen must appear again 
before the registry board, and make an entirely new 
registration. This may be inconvenient or even impos- 
sible for him. He should be allowed to transfer his 
registration by writing to the central registration office 
within a reasonable period before the election and mak- 
ing the necessary change there, subject to reasonable 
check. It is of vital importance that the registration 
system shall be as nearly as possible free from fraud, 
and that the rolls shall not be padded with surplus 
voters, fraudulent or fictitious; and it must be freely 
conceded that there have been serious instances of this 
in many elections. However, it is possible to go to the 
other extreme and make the registration provisions so 
onerous that thousands of citizens are deprived of the 
vote as a result of their operation. 

A suggested means of reducing the quantity of 
non-voting is the compulsory vote, a system in which 
failure to vote is punished by fine, public reprimand, 
or by forfeiture of voting rights unless adequate excuse 
is given. ‘This system is now used in certain European 
countries, notably in Belgium and in Czecho-Slovakia.! | 
In North Dakota and Massachusetts the legislature is 
authorized to provide for compulsory voting but no use 
has been made of the constitutional provision thus far.? 
Viewed purely as a control device, the compulsory vote 
would, in all probability, accomplish the purpose of 

1 For a discussion of these experiments see W. T. Donaldson, Compulsory 
Voting and Absent Voting (with Bibliographies), Columbus, Ohio, 1914; 


J. Barthelmy, “‘Pour le vote obligatoire,” Revue du droit public et de la 
science politique, XL (1923), 101-67. 


2 A similar amendment was rejected in Oregon in 1920. J. D. Barnett, | 
“Compulsory Voting in Oregon,” American Political Science Review, XV, 
255-66. 


242 NON-VOTING 


reducing the number of non-voters. It would, per- 
haps, be possible in this fashion to put an end to the 
bulk of non-voting, or more accurately to end failure 
to appear at the polls, for experience shows that where 
the system is in operation a considerable number of 
those who appear cast a blank ballot in protest against 
the regimentation imposed upon them. From the scien- 
tific point of view, the obligatory vote system would, 
if the law were enforced, very greatly stimulate voting. 
It would add the force of governmental authority to 
the persuasions of interest that now work upon the 
voter. 

Such an expedient, while desirable in some ways, 
may..have..other..disadvantages..that.offset_its. gains. 
The state may well conscript the individual property 
of a person in time of need, but is.it_desirable_to.con- 
script his attention. and.-interest upon public-questions 
to the extent of obliging him to vote even against-his 
will? Or is it possible to obtain in this manner the 
judgment it is desired to have? If the individual 
deliberately chooses not to vote, would it be desirable 
to oblige him to go through the form of voting against 
his will? Or again, under our conditions is it likely 
that such a law would be uniformly enforced ? 

There is, to be sure, much to be said upon both sides 
of this discussion, and much is to be done in the way 
of practical observation of the system where it is in 
operation. ‘This constitutes, in fact, a study by itself 
which it has not been possible to make within the limits 
of this inquiry, but which might very advantageously 
be made in systematic fashion by competent observers 
equipped for the purpose. Beyond doubt, merely as a 
means of adding to the vote, the system of compulsion 
would bring about the results desired. The real 
question, however, goes down to the roots of the theory 


METHODS OF CONTROLLING NON-VOTING 243 


of the electoral process, and consequently carries us 
beyond the scope of the present investigations. 

More fundamental, however, than any of the me- 
chanical devices that have thus far been considered 
is the necessity of affecting in some favorable way the 
attitude of the non-voter, which, after all, is the funda- 


mental factor in the situation. How shall we deal with ‘ 


general indifference and specific prejudices either against 


voting or against the governmental system itself?» 


Some of these attitudes may be changed by the adult 
education. of the community in the numerous ways 
by which communities play upon the opinions of their 
members and drive them or lead them into line with the 
opinion and the attitude of the bulk of the society. 
There is reason to believe that many of the attitudes 
toward government disclosed in this investigation 
might be changed by a process of popular enlighten- 
_ment such as might be carried on by the press, by 
leaders of opinion, by organizations and associations 
persistently inculcating the doctrine of the govern- 
mental responsibility of the average man and the aver- 
age voter. Likewise, the governmental opportunity 
of the citizen may be emphasized by various types of 
influences that may be brought to bear upon the mem- 
bers of the community. The citizen who believes that 
government is corrupt may be shown that the most 
effective course of action in such a case.is.participation 
in governmental affairs rather than_boycott of govern- 
ment. The citizen who has a grievance against the 
government, as in the case where the streets are not 
cleaned, or the ashes not removed from the alley, or 
the taxes are raised, or the country goes dry, may be 
shown that his abstention from participation in gov- 
ernment does not help his situation but is likely to 
result in still less desirable conditions. — It is not to be 


| 


244 | NON-VOTING 


presumed that a series of evangelistic exhortations alone 
will increase the quantity of voting. ‘The appeal must 
be made to the intelligence and the interest of the 
citizen. It is possible to show how the life-interest of 
the voter is linked up, under present conditions, with 
the character of the government, with the capacity, 
honesty, vision, and constructive ability of its agents 
and representatives. 7 

How elections may be made vivid and interesting of 
themselves, so that men will be drawn into them, is 
another problem which might well be the subject of 
much thought and experiment. Unquestionably, the 
short ballot with more sharply outlined leadership and 
power would aid in making elections more attractive. 
The choice of one hundred or more officials, many of 
them of minor significance, as, for example, the county 
surveyor or the coroner or the clerk of the probate 
court, is a weariness to the flesh, and it tends to pro- 
duce boredom in many voters. ‘They shrink from the 
task of passing upon the personnel of prospective 
officials whose qualifications they do not know, and 
whose positions they regard as very insignificant. 
The dramatic elections are those where great power 
and responsibility are at stake, and where much turns" 
upon the outcome of the vote. In selecting a mayor 
or a governor or a president the voter identifies himself 
with the power and the personality of the victor or 
of the challenger, as the case may be, and: achieves 
an interest in the proceedings often very intense in 
nature. 

Deeper down lies the problem of preliminary. educa- 
tion for political life, a field into which it is not possible 
to enter here except by way of suggestion. To what 
extent do the school systems instil the spirit of civic 
obligation and civic interest and civic facility in judg- 


METHODS OF CONTROLLING NON-VOTING 245 


ment of problems and personnel?! It may well be 
contended that a more thorough training in political 
information, intelligence, spirit, and obligation may 
go far toward arousing a type of governmental interest 
that might be counted upon to continue for a long 
period. It would perhaps be practicable to test the 
efficacy of existing courses in government by examining 
groups some years after the time of the school work.’ 

The training in the secondary school might further 
be intensified and emphasized by more formal con- 
sideration of the nature of the ballot at the time of 
first entrance into the voting group. The first voter 
might be given a much more attractive initiation into 
the democratic fellowship of which he becomes a part 
than he is ordinarily offered when he first enters the 
basement or the barber shop to register or to cast his 
vote. There is little of the dramatic in the usual 
process commonly followed, little to stir the imagina- 
tion of the new voter as he crosses the portals of the 
great democratic society. Dull as it may seem in 
drab surroundings, the casting of the first vote of the 
American citizen is in reality a moment of deep sig- 
nificance to the individual and to the community he 
-joins, and efforts might well be made to emphasize 
this really momentous occasion and utilize its values 
for the enrichment of political life. 

Even if new voters are not actually assembled, it 
would be possible by means of the modern device of 
the radio to address great numbers of them simulta- 
neously, or by the moving picture to reach thousands 
within a week previous to the registration or electoral 
period. There are inviting possibilities in the develop- 
ment of a solemn and impressive introduction into 

1See C. E. Merriam, “Citizenship,” University of Chicago Magazine, 1911. 

2See David Snedden, Civic Education. 


246 NON-VOTING 


voting life, and if this introduction comes at the end of 
a thorough training in the fundamentals of citizenship, 
the result may be significant. It cannot be too fre- 
quently reiterated, however, that the electoral process 
must be able to generate its own interest and drive 
as it goes along, without too great reliance upon the 
sense of obligation alone. ‘The vitality of government 
must spring from the keen sense of its continuing 
utility, from the continuing commendation of intelli- 
gence, and the spontaneous promptings of genuine 
interest. 

It is plain, then, that there are numerous devices 
that may be utilized in stimulating the voting tendencies 
of the electorate, some of which have been tried and others 
have been only projected. A careful survey of these 
experiments would be desirable, and actual experiment 
with them would be of still greater importance. There 
is no one of the situations under which non-voting has 
been found in Chicago that would not respond to treat- 
ment. Some of them, as in the case of physical causes, 
are more readily handled, and others, such as general 
indifference at the other extreme, are slower to respond. 
Modifications in law and administration, stimulation 
of interest through discussion, the slower process of 
education of the coming generation—these are all 
available as methods of increasing the vote on a volun- 
tary basis. Compulsory voting appears as an addi- 
tional measure if it is desired to employ this type of 
pressure to the voter. To bring out a 100 per cent 
vote would be very difficult, but to develop a 90 per 
cent vote ought not to present insuperable obstacles in 
most constituencies. After the expenditure of a cer- 
tain amount of effort the law of diminishing returns 
would enter to impair the value of the marginal 
attempts. But it is perfectly plain that intelligence 


METHODS OF CONTROLLING NON-VOTING 247 


applied to the problem of non-voting will produce 
results of a significant nature. 

It is evident that the easiest task, given carte 
blanche, would be to depress the number of voters. 
We do not contemplate this procedure, but it would be 
possible, scientifically speaking. At times, in fact, 
the party workers do what they can to bring out a 
small vote, as when the organization fears the effect 
of a large vote, or when the partisan leaves untouched 
voters who might perhaps favor the opposite party. 
The “still hunt” and the “let alone”’ policy are well 
understood by the practical masters of the art of deal- 
ing with the electorate; and are from time to time 
employed as occasion and advantage dictate by these 
doctors of electioneering. The politician’s tactics of 
not “‘stirring them up” is the method best adapted to 
promote general indifference and neglect. A notable 
example of this is seen in the Second Ward in the very 
election studied. A well-concerted plan for this would 
include not only the masterful inactivity of the party 
workers, but the silence of the press, the quietude of 
civic organizations, a general conspiracy of avoidance 
of political discussion. The controlling agencies would 
boycott the election by quietly ignoring it. 

It would be easy to increase the physical difficulties 
of voting. Lack of knowledge regarding the time, the 
place, the purpose of the election, would make it more 
of a task to cast a ballot. In point of fact, we went 
through just such a period prior to the establishment 
of the Australian ballot system,' and for a long time 
afterward with the primary-election systems.2 The diffi- 
culties were so great that the voter was puzzled and 
oiten avoided the election altogether. The oral-voting 

1 See E. C. Evans, History of the Australian Ballot, pp. 1-16. 

2See C. E. Merriam, History of Primary Elections, chap. i. 


248 NON-VOTING 


system was in vogue for many years, but was abandoned 
in order to prevent intimidation or corruption at the 
polls, thereby incidentally increasing the number of the 
voters. 

In the next place and for such a purpose the electoral 
process should be made as complex as possible. A 
still larger number of names should be placed upon the 
ballot, so that voting would become an accomplish- 
ment in manual dexterity, a test of good eyesight, 
a feat in memory of the qualification and accomplish- 
ments of the obscure. This would beyond question 
tend to reduce the number of voters.! If ingenuity 
were given free rein, the election might become so 
severe an intelligence test that few would care to 
undergo the strain. 

From the foregoing brief résumé of a few of the 
possible devices for encouraging the situations under 
which non-voting develops, it is easy to see that the 
problem of reducing the vote is a relatively easy one. 
These suggestions may perhaps be taken as somewhat 
jocular in character, but, in point of fact, the regular 
party workers understand and practice from time to 
time the art of depressing the vote as well as that of 
stimulating it, and it would be easy to improve by 
scientific methods on their results. 

It is plain that the non-voting behavior may readily 
be controlled—either increased or diminished as desired. 
Few desire to reduce voting, at any rate not of those 
entitled to vote, and, consequently, the practical prob- 
lem is that of increasing the amount of voting. Here 
the methods range from the drastic system of compul- 

1JIn the southern states many devices have been employed to make 
voting difficult for the colored man. Among these are the use of a number 


of ballot boxes for different offices, the omission of the party designation on 
the ballot. 


METHODS OF CONTROLLING NON-VOTING 249 


sory voting to the slower processes of civic and social 
education. Between them lie a long series of legal and 
administrative changes and of drives for publicity and 
public education to which much attention will doubt- 
less be given in the future. For this purpose, the 
usefulness of the present study lies in the analysis of 
the reasons for non-voting and in the indication of the 
distribution of the reasons through various groups in 
the community. This is a diagnosis of non-voting 
behavior on which may be based specific treatment of 
this phase of democratic activity. 


CHAPTER X 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 


The causal explanation of non-voting, like the 
causal explanation of any social occurrence, involves 
the description of the individuals involved and of the 
total stimulating situations. In this study the statis- 
tical and the case-study methods have been used to 
show some of the facts that were related to non-voting 
in a particular Chicago election. Inasmuch as the party 
experts were able and willing to furnish only the most 
general information about their negligent constituents, 
and inasmuch as there was scarcely any social data 
available regarding all the voters and non-voters in 
the election, it was found necessary to send special 
interviewers into certain selected areas in order to 
find out something about the peculiar characteristics 
of the non-voters and to make a study of the situations 
in which citizens failed to vote. The control groups 
used in the study were the registered voters and the 
adult citizens that lived in the same neighborhoods 
that were canvassed for non-voters. Information in 
regard to the registered voters was obtained from the 
registration books in the Election Commissioners’ office, 
‘and certain social data regarding the adult citizens 
‘were obtained from a special tabulation made in the 
: United States Census Office. 

The analysis of the entire number of adult citizens 
who did not vote in the election of April 3, 1923, shows 
that two factors of sex and registration status were 
very closely related to the condition under discussion. 
‘There were twice as many female non-voters as there 


250 


SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 251 


were male non-voters, and there were three times 
as many adult citizens who could not vote because they 
had failed to register as there were registered voters 
who had failed to vote in the particular election. An 
examination of the election records brought to light 
the fact that the local election did not have sufficient 
dramatic interest to attract the same ratio of eligible 
electors that took part in the preceding presidential 
election. The most striking decreases in the propor- 
tions of adult citizens registered and of registered voters 
taking part in the local election were found in the most 
prosperous neighborhoods where those of native Ameri- 
can parentage predominated. 

The analysis of certain social data obtained regard- 
ing the non-voters and the registered voters in selected 
areas showed that old age or youthfulness kept many 
citizens from voting; that newness to the city and 
unfamiliarity with local political affairs deterred many 
others from going to the polls; and that foreign birth 
and foreign-language training kept many women whose 
American citizenship was acquired by marriage prior 
to September, 1922, from registering. 

The different social situations that stimulated non- 
voting were ascertained in two ways. Some 250 party 
experts gave their opinions as to the chief reasons why 
people did not vote, and over 6,000 non-voters were 
personally interviewed. The percentage - distribution 
of the non-voters interviewed, classified according to 
reasons given for not voting, showed that general 
indifference and inertia accounted for over two-fifths } - 
of all the abstentions, that such physical difficulties } 
as illness and absence covered one-quarter of the cases, | 
that legal and administrative obstacles explained | 
one-eighth of the electoral failures, and that disbelief ; 
in woman’s voting or disgust with politics accounted 


252 NON-VOTING 


for the remainder. This analysis agreed in general 
with the views of the party experts. 

When the reasons for not voting given by the non- 
voters of specified sex were analyzed, it became at 
once clear that entirely different situations stimulated 
non-voting among the women than among the men. 
If the women had not been allowed to vote in the 
particular election studied, then the factors of general 
indifference and inertia would have been of much less 
importance and the physical and legal difficulties of 
much more importance. Only one-third of the male 
non-voters as compared with one-half of the female 
non-voters were indifferent toward elections. On 
the other hand, three-fifths of the men as compared 
with three-tenths of the women who did not vote 
said that they were kept from the polls by physical 
or administrative obstacles. One-eighth of the female 
non-voters were anti-suffragists. 

Entirely different reasons were emphasized by 
those who were not registered than by those who were 
registered but did not vote-in the particular election. 


Illness and absence together were three times as — 


important in the latter group asin the former. General 

pans and inertia were the chief reasons why 
adult citizens did not register. One-third of those who 
had voted elsewhere but not in the city asserted that 
they did not vote in the local election because of legal 
and administrative obstacles in the way, and over one- 
third of the habitual female non-voters disbelieved 
in voting. 

While general indifference and inertia were the 
most common reasons given by the non-voters, there 
were certain social situations in which other factors 
loomed up as of more importance. The chief reasons 
for not voting given by the colored citizens who had 


SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 253 


just come to the city were insufficient legal residence 
and disgust with politics; the principal causal explana- 
tions offered by the elderly native white males engaged 
in business and living in the best residential sections 
of the city were absence and illness; and the main 
reason for failing to vote that was given by the small 
shopkeepers was fear of loss of business or wages. 

The analysis of the sex, color, nationality, regis- 
tration status, voting experience, age, term of residence 
in city, and economic status of the non-voters that 
gave particular reasons for not voting brought out 
more clearly the close relationship that existed between 
the social situations and the peculiar characteristics 
of the non-voters. For instance, illness kept’ at home 
on election day many elderly housewives and a few 
elderly gentlemen. On the other hand, the women 
kept from voting by home-nursing duties were usually 
young. Absence from the city on election day was 
most common among the registered, native white, 
middle-aged, well-to-do businessmen. Fear of loss 
of business or wages was a significant cause of non- 
voting among the registered males, some of them 
colored and some of them foreign-born, who were 
under forty years of age, who lived in poor neighbor- 
hoods and who were employed in manufacturing, 
construction work, or in the small retail business. The 
inconvenient hours of voting that resulted in congestion 
at the polls kept from voting the young workmen 
living in congested and rapidly expanding sections 
of the city. Many women hesitated to enter polling 
booths that were found in undesirable locations, and 
there were many others who balked at the registration 
hurdle because of the requirement of age. 

Among the most interesting cases were the anti- 
suffragists. Disbelief in woman’s voting and objections 


254 NON-VOTING 


of husband kept at home on election day many house- 
wives of foreign stock who lived in the poorest sections 
of the city. From the study made of this group, it 
was obvious that there were thousands of women in 
the city who still believed that woman’s place is in 
the home, that women have no business in politics, 
that women should mind their own business and let 
the men attend to politics, that woman is a flower for 
man to worship and that she should not spoil her beauty 
by mingling in his affairs, that women have enough to 
do without bothering with politics, that women have 
no business voting, that the women who are determined 
‘to run the world will ruin it in the long run, and that 
the troubles of today are caused by women departing 
from the ideals and traditions of yesterday. 

Another striking feature of the study was the large 
amount of disgust with politics that was discovered. . 
Disgust with politics accounted for the abstention of 
many native males of negro or foreign parentage 
who were old residents of poor sections of the city. 
Some middle-aged housewives also had grudges against 
the government. Poor people expressed the view 
that politics benefited only the rich and that the govern- 
ment was taking away all the liberties of the poor. 
Disgust with the local party situation was expressed 
by a large number of the registered negroes who had 
established political connections in the city. Some 
middle-aged poor people insisted that one vote counted 
for nothing, that the candidates were equally bad, 
that the ballot box was corrupted, and that the whole 
election system was a sham and a fraud. There were 
a few who disbelieved in all political action either for 
economic or for religious considerations. 

It is not maintained in this study that the non- 
voting of those who simply said they were indifferent 


SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 255 


toward elections is satisfactorily explained. However, 
it was demonstrated that there were many kinds of 
indifference resulting from varied social situations. 
General indifference was very prevalent among the white 
females of foreign parentage who were not registered, 
who had little voting experience, who lived in poor 
sections of the city, and who had no occupation but 
housework. Indifference was less prevalent among 
the men but was found to some extent among the males 
of foreign parentage who were not registered and who 
were engaged in unskilled work. Indifference to the 
last election was found to be most common among those 
racial groups that were dissatisfied with the local 
political situation and among the native whites who 
were engrossed with other matters and were bored 
by the frequency of elections in Chicago. Similarly, 
neglect was common among the young registered 
native-born males who were experienced in voting 
and who lived in middle-class neighborhoods. One of 
the chief causes of non-registration was ignorance 
and timidity regarding elections. ‘This condition was 
very prevalent among the young colored citizens and 
the middle-aged foreign-born women who had acquired 
their American citizenship through the naturalization 
of their husbands. The educational opportunities 
of many of these people had been so limited that they 
did not even know how to mark a ballot, and they 
hesitated to go to the polls for fear of being ridiculed. 
Practically the only force which could move them poll- 
ward was an extremely active local party organization 
or woman’s club. 

Detailed studies of certain typical precincts brought 
to light the fact that women’s political clubs have 
aroused an interest in voting among a very large propor- 
tion of adult female citizens of native white parentage 


256 NON-VOTING 


living in the best residential districts, and that the 
party organizations in working-class districts were very 
successful in bringing out a large proportion of the male 
vote, and, while less successful with the women voters, 
were improving in this respect. In spite of everything 
that was done to interest the eligible electors, there 
were still unduly large numbers of adult female citizens 
who did not vote in neighborhoods that were predomi- 
nately German, Polish, Scandinavian, Russian, Italian, 
or negro. In the particular election under discussion, 
the voting record of the negroes was the poorest of 
any of the racial groups analyzed, largely because of 
the inactivity of the local party workers. In other 
words, the amount of voting or non-voting found in 
a given precinct was determined by the strength or 
weakness of the different racial, neighborhood, and 
partisan influences that were at work in the community. 

The ways of controlling non-voting are as numerous 
as the situations that have been considered. Some 
of these are simple and others extraordinarily complex. 
The simpler situations, such as congestion at the polling 
places and inadequate hours, are readily soluble. 
Somewhat more difficult problems, such as those raised 
by absence from the city or by lack of registration, 
may be dealt with successfully, in the one case, by 
greater emphasis on the possibilities of the Absent 
Electors’ Law, and, in the other, by more adequate 
provision for registration. In view of the large number 
of voters who are disfranchised by registration require- 
ments, it is clear that the whole registration system is 
in urgent need of overhauling with a view to such 
changes as may facilitate voting, without, however, 
opening the door to fraud. 

More difficult problems are presented by disbelief 
in voting, by ignorance and timidity regarding elections, 


SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 957 


and by general indifference and its specific forms. 
Disbelief in voting, in so far as it is based upon opposi- 
tion to woman’s suffrage, will undoubtedly die away 
as the community becomes habituated to woman’s 
voting. It is noteworthy that, although many German 
women do not vote here, in Germany, under the new 
law, practically all women exercise their franchise. 
In so far as disbelief in voting rests upon distrust of 
or disgust with democratic institutions, a far more 
difficult question is raised, and is such that will not 
readily yield to treatment. Ignorance and timidity 
regarding elections may be traced partly to the “jungle 
ballot”? which alarms many voters, partly to lack of 
information regarding candidates or issues, and partly 
to a certain timidity regarding the electoral machinery. 
A simpler and shorter ballot, better organization of 
information regarding the essential issues in campaigns, 
and wide publicity campaigns explaining the technique 
of voting would all be helpful in overcoming these 
obstacles to voting. General indifference is made up 
of many varying factors, arising from the temperament, 
experience, interests, aptitudes of the voter, and it 
varies from habitual non-voting to occasional lapses. 
It may be affected by a broader system of social educa- 
tion, especially in the secondary schools, by more 
careful political education of newcomers, by dramatizing 
more effectively the electoral privilege and the electoral 
process, and by more effective organization of adult 
political intelligence. In this direction, however, 
advance is tentative and experimental, as the ground 
has never been explored. The drastic remedy of 
compulsory voting, under penalty of fine or forfeiture 
of franchise, has been suggested and is used in Belgium 
and Czecho-Slovakia. While this proposal should be 
given careful consideration, it seems of little value 


258 NON-VOTING 


because of the difficulty of substantial enforcement, 
and furthermore by reason of the dubious policy of con- 
scripting judgment on community policies in the case 
of the indifferent or the negligent. 

In any case, there will remain considerable groups 
of non-voters, such as those who are absent for long 
periods, those who are ill or institutionally confined, 
those who have just moved, those who are satisfied 
with either candidate or dissatisfied with both, and 
a mass of beings who are either bitter against society 
or assume no obligation for community maintenance 
or feel themselves superior to society or disbelieve 
in the utility of all political action. 


APPENDIX A 


TABULATIONS OF ORIGINAL DATA 


In order to avoid confusing the reader, none of the tabulations 


of the original data were given in the body of the text. 


All the 


tables given there were derived from the original tabulations in the 


TABLE XIX 


Reasons ror Not Votina Given By Non-Voters INTERVIEWED 


Reasons Given By Non-VOTERS 


Reasons For Not Votine 


Singly 

IER ROTS OU oe ene Puede oul ds s 4,654 
Physical difficulties: | 

RP eg ee Le ete 604 

ES eS ners an 2 Ca 539 


Detained by helpless member of family . 106 
Legal and administrative obstacles: 


Insufficient legal residence............. 389 
Fear of loss of business or wages....... 226 
Congestion at the polls............... 21 
Poor location of polling booth......... 20 
Fear of disclosure of age.............. 8 
Disbelief in voting: 
Disbelief in woman’s voting........... 252 
Objections of husband................ AT 
Belief that one vote counts for nothing.. 38 
Disgust with politics................. 127 
Disgust with own party............... 200 
Belief that ballot box is corrupted...... 21 
Disbelief in all political action......... 21 
Inertia: 
General indifference. ................. 1,289 
Indifference to particular election...... 130 
Neglect: intended to vote but failed... . 379 
Ignorance or timidity regarding elections. 216 
Failure of party workers.............. 21 


In Combina-]. 

tion with 
Other 

Reasons 


1,444 


166 
121 


951 
23 
298 
349 
96 


Singly and 
in Combina- 
tion with 
Other 
Reasons 


6,098 


770 
660 
120 


480 
396 
64 
108 
16 


505 
60 
126 
338 
267 
52 
35 


2 240 
153 
677 
565 
117 





following manner: first, by selecting a single reason as the most 
important reason on each of the schedules, and second, by excluding 
69 per cent of the colored non-voters from each item on each table. 


259 


NON-VOTING 


260 


< - * = = i = > + -- 2c ~ he 





SOF al + lop ary ar ryT epee ATT I 9 P bill pla ¢ Treeeesessessesssssroyrom Ayred Jo omMpre7 
88 |" /0s | |ssaje Pf jee le IL fae tn JE fet [oor |e [°° **suorooje SurpreSor Ayr:pramy 10 souesrousy 
PI j0S | |LL 66 |} 9 OL |} | PP JRE JB9 [IS 18S [es | °° °° perez yng ‘30a 0} pepusqzur :yoo];%aN7 
= hes ae a ee ee ee er nn Mares Ene re 3 eee ye ee ae, a) WOTpe]9 Iepnorjsied 0} soudIOTIpuy 











pln tL ofcclecchecls lor feet: 
SP |8So/66 {IT {°° "|G J6L |S |SOTILP [ST |808\— |L6 19 (6S [89 [IT |S 139 J SUSI HIPUl [e19uef) 
“DU40UT 
eee F ee ® 0 eOe-< } * 6 Fe s 6.) 6 exe 8 j cee r 3 see ¢ . aoe) o> ere I we Use € 2s BS. e ane © 2 eo @ & 6) oe UWOI}0V [eortjod Il? ur Jerpeqsiq 
I oes e die s 2 hem: ‘t =T beth] wae eee 1Z RM ere Pad teh eked eee te eae g aveke Paks Liste |e elie 2 a enete ** **pazdniioo st xoq yoT[eq yey} Jorog 
= apd ae eee} os aes ee yd ee Beaks ewig Ens a Eee ley cel Tos Baek | Pog ae ee case Steeapr ana-« ‘Ayred UMO YIM YsnSstq 
OL |e lOL 2 SOLIS THR SS ee ST ie, rd Be bg ad Pe ea es eee Treesse sss -sorod yqt ysn3siqi 
a fs “lor lap le bas Mes Lee aes | see Gata | | be ak ed bad Far | a Zury}OU IO} S}UNOD 9j0A oUO 7eY} JOE 
= TL pace besa OS wee eer hie ek ee Oe ee ee ee eee eee ae Se ee Fe ee ee Es oO i be 2 he 8 © bie @hOiheum el @ 646.0) @ sued eee eee eee pueqsny jo suoroefqg 
P LS sesds ss lonale RPcte = “toy L hema) AS 5d Dena es |: 67 = eee SUTJOA SWRULOA UT Jorfoqstqy 
‘buyoa ur fayagsrg 
oS CS aa eae | ak oss ad oe peas RSS [3 5 agent tc Om ee al Rees | Pes ena SA a a3v Jo aINsOpsIp Jo Ieay 
IL |Ut l#t |°° las t¢ ras Sanaa te ee ee 9¢ Dig ae ee a RE, y00q Burjod jo uorea0] Io0g 
I I re lc cle ed eS Ce er 6 ete Bao ae Seed [9 ee bed bes Cs ee ee he ee re sfjod 7% uorsesu0, 
9 + le9 “lee ‘ste 9 ar Ea BOER pe cen Baten 0 CI wal et east at 9 rete Fist A Gunes SosvM JO SsouIsNq JO sso] Jo Iva,q 
- FL wl.» "189 I Cs ce ee er ie | 6 oe fee ye he cel r ha am Na ah Ooh e 6) 20a e OE ind ele Ste aw ee BeOS) ee be abe < ‘QOUSPISA [Vso] JUSTIOUNsuT 
/89]0D}SqQO aaynssiurupp pun pwbaT 
Saas SLT Sd OMe Smet Toa ey 6. oot ke am Bie ame Tens) o/cb) er kiim Goa B66 ee @ te haba @ 6. piesa ac) 6 10 al ate™elet ate ave Ajrurey Jo Jaquieur ssajdjey Aq poureyoq 
pt les | cles ctcclclet de dele deccleccccler ech deccle. fecceeeceettcccc ttc ereeeee aouasqy 
A ise oxen go os ie les ge in i lo Big la rahe tos So eens ree ee eevee e SsoulT 
Ea oe re eo ad sca ae ees 2 Kee es Cs Be Po 8 ees es cae isaynoyfip qwoorshiy 
96 |6PS/86G|\S6 |TY6|/PL |TS |L49 |LTG/88 |El |SSs/8 {88 |Sh |OLTITG |PL |TSTI99T| oe oS ee ee “"*" [BOT 
ms i be ts] © ml ml OO] ml oe >| 
9 Elm S es leel & pel melee © lokl SleEl>sles - oflazles| F Ey 
@EleS/oblsm| 6 (ag/-SleS|S jos! S loge" im tla |" FISaime) 8 | g 
SISEIPSIES| B ISEIO SSS] 4 15) SER lar] 2 |SS/3 SB 1 es | ° 
BIE8 ly |ZE| es Plas) <| 4 a] B je Ssi so jab| sie 
Sieolemes| =| FSS) EE ITE S| 5] SIRE] = [88 lag 
eS S SiS Els i: ss o ce i 2 I 
a sie a aoe = = a S ‘ Ze ba z 5 5 re Ss 8 1 ONILOA LON HOA SNOSVAY 
SSbieey’ | 3) &} S| Ss} ele 02] eB] § | &) oib2 
s|\oeie™) me] Fl Bett gel Bote B) Slate 
Wied) S| #121 B) OS alow] Sloe fe ee 
2 ee 
VILYEN] i DNILOA NI AGITEASICT SH TOVISHO GAILVUL SAIL TAO 


“SININGY GNV 'IVOd'T TVOISAHG 


CA MALAUELN SUELO A-NON PPP'T AM NAATD DNILOA LON YO SNOSVaY 40 SNOILLVNIGWO‘) 
XX ATAVo 








TABULATIONS OF ORIGINAL DATA 261 


The original figures, as they were taken from the machines, will be 
of interest to those who are contemplating making studies similar 
to the present one. On page 259 is given Table XIX. This 
shows the reasons for not voting given by the 6,098 non-voters as 
they were found on the schedules turned in by the interviewers. 
Column 1 gives the frequency distribution of the reasons for not 
voting given singly by the non-voters interviewed; column 2 gives 
the frequency distribution of those reasons for not voting given 
by the non-voters in combination with other reasons; and column 3 
gives the frequency distribution of the reasons given by the non- 
voters singly and in combination with other reasons. Since the 
last-mentioned column gives the distribution of the total number of 
reasons checked, whether more than one reason was checked on a 
schedule or not, the sum total of the items in the table is greater 
than 6,098—the total number of non-voters interviewed. This 
fact would render a percentage table, based on the items in column 3, 
very confusing, and accordingly such a table is not given. 

Table XX gives the frequency distribution of the combinations 
of reasons for not voting given by the non-voters interviewed who 
mentioned more than one reason. In other words, it is a cross- 
tabulation according to reasons for not voting of the items given in 
column 2 of Table XIX. Table XX may be read either vertically 
or horizontally, since each item appears twice. All the combina- 
tions are given in that half of the table above an imaginary diagonal 
line drawn from the upper left-hand corner to the bottom right- 
hand corner, the lower half being simply a repetition. 


APPENDIX B 


FORMS USED IN STUDY OF NON-VOTING 


INSTRUCTIONS TO INTERVIEWERS OF ADULT 
CITIZEN NON-VOTERS IN CHICAGO 


SoctaL ResEARCH COMMITTEE OF THE DEPARTMENTS OF POLITICAL 
Economy, SocioLoGy, AND PoLiTicAL SCIENCE OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 


PURPOSE 


The Political Science Department of the University of Chicago 
as its contribution to the local community survey which is being 
made by the Social Research Committee of the University is under- 
taking a study of non-voting in Chicago. The varied character 
of the population of Chicago and the complicated nature of its 
government make it in many ways an ideal community for a study 
of non-voting. It is hoped that this study will start other surveys 
of non-voting and that valuable scientific results will be obtained. 


METHOD OF INQUIRY 


In making a canvass of an election precinct, each interviewer 
will be given a list of registered voters on which the names of those 
who voted at the election on April 3, 1923, will be crossed out. 
‘This will enable you to reach at once one class of non-voters, those 
who register but do not vote or seldom vote. It will be more 
difficult to find the names of those adult citizens who have not — 
registered. In apartment areas, the name plates can be compared with 
the list of registered voters. Where a name appears onaname plate 
but not on the list of registered voters, it is a fair surmise that there 
is an adult non-voter in the apartment. In some cases you will be 
furnished with lists of non-registered adult citizens by the precinct 
committeeman. In house areas, the names of non-voters will have 
to be obtained from their neighbors or in any other way which the 
ingenuity of the interviewer may invent. Some names may be 
obtained from children. Where a house number is seen which does 
not appear upon the list of registered voters, the presumption is 
that it contains some adult non-voters. In making a canvass, 


262 


FORMS USED IN STUDY OF NON-VOTING 263 


follow the order of addresses given upon the list of registered voters. 
Information about the man of the house may be obtained from the 
wife. 
PERSONS TO BE INTERVIEWED 

Do not fill in a schedule for any person who is not an adult 
citizen. It is true that many people in Chicago fail to vote because 
they are not naturalized, but the Fourteenth Census gives the 
exact number of unnaturalized adults twenty-one years of age and 
over in Chicago in 1920, and the interviewing of unnaturalized 
adults is such a difficult task that it would complicate our problem. 


CONFIDENTIAL CHARACTER OF THE WORK 


This study is of a scientific character. The persons interviewed 
should be impressed with its objective nature. There are no ulterior 
partisan ends to be served. All material will be treated as strictly 
confidential. You are not to show filled-in schedules to any persons 
other than those who are supervising the study. 


GENERAL COMMENTS ON THE SCHEDULE 


Be sure to sign your name on each schedule which you use on the 
line following the heading “‘Investigator.”’ The schedule is divided 
into two parts. The first part contains items which give a general 
description of the non-voter, and the second part lists some of the 
obvious reasons why people do not register and do not vote. This 
list is not complete nor does the schedule attempt to cover every 
situation that might come up. Show uniform courtesy to all 
persons interviewed, and do not antagonize them in any way. 
Refer doubtful points to Mr. Gosnell and the committee. Feel 
free to offer any suggestions to Mr. Gosnell regarding the inquiry. 


DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING SCHEDULE 


Item 1.—“Name” . Address Enter surname first, 
then the given name and middle initial, if any. 

Item 2.—‘‘Term of residence”’ Ask some such ques- 
tions as, “‘How long have you been in Chicago?” “‘How long have 
you lived at your present address?” Enter the length of residence 
in Chicago over the word ‘‘County.”’ 

Item 3.—‘Date of naturalization.”’ One of the first things to 
ascertain is whether the person accosted is a citizen. In answering 
this question, the person interviewed is likely to disclose whether 
he is a native-born or naturalized citizen. If not, assume that he 
is a native-born citizen where that assumption is reasonable. 











NON-VOTING 


264 


[uNouq] 



































ec ae a eT ee RE Ee ee SOCAL FOU eT F0 SROS SOM ee ees 
TT poprey 3g 930A 0} poptoqUI—qo9][99NV *L 81g} ou J0j SJUNOD 930A 9UO 3EY} Jolpo_ ‘OT 
pueqsny jo suorqalqg ysiseigns-1yu0e 
(SUOZI}IO B[BUTIJ IOJ) SUIJOA S UBUIOM UI Jorpaqsiq] “ST 
WOIJDIIP 4SV[ 9} OF SUOIZD9T2 [[B 0} 
eit ee eR pe ae ee eae teh oe yee ee ah Pere Se ee 4 Re OT Ug] ONC n ae 
(‘$ 99G) ‘adUepIser [eso] JUSTOFNsUT “ST 
asneo dAI3 
Ayo WOT] VoUESqY “SIL ssoul[T “IL 
buroa you of ————— bursajsr6as you of suosvay 
oyep sovyd ou Jo sof 
¢ WIYMOSTS Po}OA JOAV NOL OALFT ‘OL 
BUI}OA YsBl JO oyep ou 10 so& 
¢ OSBIYD Ul P9jOA JOAV NOA BAVFT “6 
yyuom Jed yer 2.1036 yeLT quomjyiedy esnoy 
Sujamp jo eddy, “g 
100d Ivey poo poos A£19A 
eee ee Oa ee rg ee ae Sas SET Se ee ee ee ee POO GU SION OSC aay, 
JaqjOur jo IaqyeJ JO 19JO0A-00U Jo 
epee eee ae Sn meee ee he Reming = gs SP ee SG. Se eat ee ee oe ae Ee ee ae ee en ae 
IouI00Y Jepre0g Joyysneq u0g OTM peo 
Apturey JO pwoy 0} uOorzRpEY “¢ 
Cae gig pur ‘a NW 
Brie gre a BLO) ef a ie OD Wet ee ne ee ne PO UOT BOLO) ie ree a See age te ee ee ee 
syuoIe g osellIe yl [enpraipuy 
SO Te ee a EE Bee OL Ut] eae JO eee oe 
so}ye}g poyuy SION] Ayunoy SSoIppe Juesoid 7e 

VUIpPISAL JO WIT, *S 

ssoIppy oMBNT “I 

MCs a ee FOUL f= PEO A GAiLLINNOO HOUVASAY TVIOOS 
10}VS1]SOAUT ODVOIH) AO ALISUTAIN AH, 


OOVOIHOD NI SYALOA-NON NAZILIO LTAGV SNIMATAYALINI YO ATAGHHOS 


265 


FORMS USED IN STUDY OF NON-VOTING 


[mov] 





S}UOUIUIOD § 10} eSI]SOAUT 














J9j0A-uou Aq UdAIF suOT}eUL[dxa po[rejop JO SUOSvad [BUOTTIPpPy 





Ayturey Jo Jaquiou ssajdjay Aq poureyoq, 


s]jod oy} 0} uoryezs10dsuesy YsTUINy 07 Tl? 38 [vo 04 





sioyiom Ajred Jo ample 





sojdurexe SAIS. 
rie TON i ec we en eg oy te oe ee a ee nee gee ee Pa OO SI xOq JO]]Bq 94} 7eY} Jolpg 


SUOI}OI]9 SuIpiesar AVIPTUITy 10 voUvIOUST 








oyepipuvs Ajred Jay}O JOJ 930A 0} UOTDefqo pue ayepIpuRo AjIed UMO 0} TOTQe[GG 
[eioedg [e19uay 





sorptjod YA ysnsstq7 


ie eee ee ee ee eee POOR SUT JOG JO. 001) G00], 1004 Ss BOC OUT 1a UOT eesUO >} 


uoryeuvldxy 


Sie mie ere saree ee Gao enka er ea ae ae ep EATS Poatg OCT] es OL ore en(T 
ase JO dINSOpSIP JO Ivaq 





Aynp Ainl Jo re9aq °*O% 
OOVOIHOD NI SHYALOA-NON NAZILIO LINGV ONIMAIAYALINI YOA ATACAHOS 


“IS 
‘0S 
“66 


83 
“L6 
96 
“96 
“V6 
"66 
“TS 
6L 


266 NON-VOTING 


Item 4.—‘‘Sex’’ Put a check-mark directly over the 
“MM” or the “F” ‘“‘Occupation”’ If possible, get at this 
indirectly. Do not try to find out the person’s occupation at the 
beginning of the interview. He may give his occupation inciden- 
tally in answering some of the other questions. If, toward the end 
of the interview, you have not obtained any clue as to occupation, 
then ask directly. In entering the occupation use the census classi- 
fication and in addition the classification ““H. W.’ (Housewife). 
“Age” Do not ask the person’s age directly. Toward the 
end of the interview, you might feel out the person’s sensitiveness on 
this subject by some such remark as, “‘You have no objection to 
disclosing your age to the election officials?” In most cases, it 
will probably be necessary to estimate the age of the person inter- 
viewed. When the age is estimated, put a question mark (?) after 
your estimate. ‘‘Color” Put a check-mark directly 
over the word “‘White”’ or “Colored” or write in “Yellow” if an 
American-born Chinese is interviewed. 

Item 5.—‘‘Relation to head of family” Do not ask 
directly for information on this point at the beginning of your inter- 
view. ‘Try to find the information indirectly. The list of rela- 
tionships to the head of the family given below the line is not com- 
plete. If the person interviewed is an uncle, an aunt, a servant, or 
bears some other relation to the head of the family, write the 
appropriate term upon the line. Otherwise, simply check the 
proper description. 

Item 6.— ‘Place of birth” This item can be filled in 
when finding out how the person interviewed acquired his citizen- 
ship. Do not raise any race issues at the beginning of your inter- 
view. It may be necessary to guess at the nativity of the non-voter 
and his parents. In case of native Americans, write “U.S.,” and 
also enter the state where this can be obtained. 

Item 7.—“Type of neighborhood” This is not to be 
filled in by the investigator. The classification of the Telephone 
Company for the commercial survey will be put in later. 

Item 8.—‘‘Type of dwelling” Ascertain the rent per 
month toward the end of the interview. Where the person inter- 
viewed seems disinclined to give any information about himself, 
it may be wiser to estimate the amount of the rent. If you guess 
at the rent put a question mark (?) after your estimate. Over 
the word ‘‘Condition”’ enter a “G,” an-“‘F,” a “P,” or a “‘B,” 
standing for good, fair, poor, or bad, respectively. 


























FORMS USED IN STUDY OF NON-VOTING = 267 


Item 9.—‘Have you ever voted in Chicago ?” This ques- 
tion or its equivalent should always be asked of persons whose names 
do not appear on the lists of registered voters. Make a special note 
of adult citizens who have not registered even in presidential years. 
In the case of a registered voter who failed to vote in the election 
last April, try to find out at what kind of elections he has voted. 

Item 10.—‘*Have you ever voted elsewhere ?”’ This 
question should bring out the political experiences of the non-voter 
before he came to Chicago. Citizens in Chicago who came from 
rural communities may find nothing in the impersonal politics of 
the city to arouse their sense of civic responsibility. Naturalized 
foreigners, especially the women, may never have had any voting 
experience in their old home communities. Colored citizens, who 
came from the South recently, are also likely to be unaccustomed 
to the exercise of the voting privilege. 

** Reasons for not registering for not voting”’ .—When 
starting an interview with a person who has not registered, make a 
check-mark on the line following “reasons for not registering.” If 
the person interviewed is registered but did not vote at the election 
last April make a check on the line following “‘for not voting.” 
Items 11-21, inclusive, cover some of the common causes why people 
do not register, and items 22-29, inclusive, give some of the common 
causes why registered citizens fail to vote. The distinction between 
these two types of causes is not elear cut. Do not ask leading 
questions. Explain your general purpose and let the non-voter do 
as much of the talking as possible. 

Item 11.—“‘Illness”’ If possible, try to ascertain the 
seriousness of the illness or the physical defect. 

Item 12.—‘‘ Absence from city” If it can be done in a 
tactful manner, find out the importance of the mission which took 
the person out of the city. 























Item 13.—‘‘Insufficient legal residence”’ Try to find 
out how far the person is from his old residence. 
Item 14.—‘‘ General indifference” The kind of indiffer- 





ence here meant is due to apathy, drift, sluggishness, civic sloth- 
fulness, and indifference to social obligations. Other interests 
crowd out the political interests. 

Item 15.—‘‘ Disbelief in woman’s voting (for female citizens)” 
If you think that the objections of the husband are based 
in part upon a religious conception of woman’s place in society, 
write in “R. C.” 





268 NON-VOTING 


Item 16.—‘Belief that one vote counts for nothing” . The 
fatalistic citizen. 





Item 17.—‘‘ Neglect—intended to vote but failed” This 
is a form of indifference to elections. 
Item 18.—‘Fear of loss of business or wages”’ Persons 





paid on a wage basis may not be given time off to vote. Small 
merchants may hesitate to leave their shops or they may try to 
avoid political pressure from their customers by abstaining from 
all politics. 

Item 19.—‘Fear of disclosure of age”’ This applies to 
men as well as to women. Men who are getting on in years may 
lose their jobs if their age is known. 

Item 20.—‘Fear of jury duty” The jury panels are 
drawn from the lists of registered voters, those failing to vote 
being taken first. 

Item 21.—‘‘ Disbelief in all political action” If it can 
be found out that the person interviewed is an anarchist, a syndical- 
ist, a direct actionist, or some other kind of a disbeliever in a 
present political organization of society, write this in. 

Item 22.—‘‘Congestion at the polls” Ask how many 
times an effort was made to vote. 

Item 23.—*‘ Poor location of polling booth”’ The polling 
booth may be five or six blocks away in one of the sparsely settled 
precincts. The polling place may be in a repulsive building. 

Item 24.—*‘ Belief that the candidates are equally good” 
In the last mayoralty campaign there were many satisfied voters who 
took their clue from some of the newspapers. Non-voters will also 
be found who think that the difference between the candidates of 
the two major parties is never very great. 

Item 25.—“‘Disgust with politics” There are many 
disgusted voters who think that all politicians are crooks. 

Item 26.—‘‘Objection to own party candidate and objection to 
vote for other party candidate”’ The loyal Republican or 
Democrat who is disgusted with his own party candidate may 
refuse to vote the opposition ticket but punish his party’s managers 
by staying away from the polls. 

Item 27.—‘Ignorance or timidity regarding elections”’ : 
The conscientious citizen may throw up his arms in despair when 
asked to discriminate between long lists of aspirants for relatively 
unimportant positions. Distrust of the newspapers may also be a 
contributing cause of non-voting. There are many women who 





























FORMS USED IN STUDY OF NON-VOTING 269 


fail to vote because they do not understand the election process 
and they are ashamed to show their ignorance. There are also in 
foreign wards many women who cannot speak English and who are 
therefore ashamed to appear before the election officials. There 
are some men who have just reached the age of 21 who feel somewhat 
timid about registering and voting. Also put in this class those 
who feel that they should not vote except when they understand 
the issues involved and when they know something about the 
candidates who are running. 

Item 28.—‘Belief that the ballot box is corrupted.” This 
reason may be differentiated from Item 25 by confining it to actual 
eases of manipulation of the election machinery. Where the 
person interviewed feels that the election returns are fixed, or that 
votes are bought and sold, or that they have been unjustly deprived 
of their right to vote, put a check following this item, and give full 
explanation after Item 30. (Item 31 on the new schedule.) 

Item 29.—*‘Failure of party workers.’ If the person inter- 
viewed does not of his own accord state that he failed to vote 
because the party workers did not come around, you may, toward 
the end of the interview, ask directly whether the party workers 
came around at the last election. This item will give us a check 
on the efficiency of the party organization. 

Item 30.—On the new schedule ‘‘ Detained by helpless member 
of the family.” In putting a check directly over the word “‘Infant”’ 
make sure that it is a young infant and in putting a check over the 
words, “‘Sick Relative,” try to find out the seriousness of the 
sickness and the usefulness of the person interviewed to the sick 
person. 

Item 31.—‘‘ Additional reasons or detailed explanations given 
by non-voter”’ In some ways, this is the most important 
part of the schedule. No general schedule can cover every situation. 
Among the reasons for non-voting omitted from the schedule is 
sickness in the family. The investigator has the opportunity of 
discovering new and significant points of view. If you are unable 
to write this part up while interviewing the non-voter, do so immedi- 
ately after, before your next interview. Put down everything that 
the person says which has any bearing upon his political attitudes. 

Item 32.—*‘Investigator’s comments”’ Does the non- 
voter appear to be well educated? Does he speak English with 
facility ? Does he seem to take the election process seriously, 
looking upon voting as a duty which in theory he should perform ? 








i.) 
& 
e 
~) 
= 
re 
So 
= 
i 
Oo 
= 
a 
—_ 
f— 
nN 
Oo 
ie) 
ro) 
ro 


suoRsayy 


pelaysidoy 


8/8/8/s8is 8 


syuaed 
jo 


|T> 10%] 6£]Ec] ze oelce se [celazclIs o 62|azlzzjoz.se $e.es cate O2/ 61 SI] ZT OT et BIlET st 


6 |6|6/6 6/6/6|G/6:6 6:6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6 6 G6 6 
s 8|3/e/8 8|s/s/e/sis ee e/e ale sje ee ees 
ealelele cielelelziz az cle cle cle@2 de 
9 9|9/9/9 9/9/9/919@ 9:9 91@ ol@ 919 9@ a19 9 
s sisis}s sj|sis sig sis alg cle clogs slog 
velvloleovlrlylylyir vir vie vip vlo py ole > 
e elelele@lelcle cle ewe ecle clece@ec 

z\zz | i tig 27/2 @|z@lz zz ez 2 


Lfefefeiv@ee fe tf ie eettckrt 


230 
won }o 
‘al ‘sag | eM | “ON ITId 





WaOd GaVO-HONNd HLTAATIOH 


FORMS USED IN STUDY OF NON-VOTING 271 


QUESTIONNAIRE SENT TO PERSONS PROMINENT 
IN THE CITY 


Tue UNIvErRsITy or CHICAGO 


A STUDY OF NON-VOTING 


Purpose—All information given will be regarded as strictly confidential 
and will be used only in connection with the scientific study of non-voting. 
We ask your co-operation in filling out this questionnaire. Please examine 
the following list of reasons why people do not register and do not vote. 
Mark with a cross (X) those which you have found common and mark 
with a double cross (XX) those which you have found most common. 
This list is merely suggestive. Kindly indicate any other reasons that you 
regard as important. 


——_____IIlness 
—_____Absence from city 
—____Insufficient legal residence 





General indifference 
—____—_Disbelief in woman’s voting (for women citizens only) 


Home-nursing duties (for women citizens only) 





Belief that one vote counts for nothing 


______Neglect—intended to vote but failed 





——____Fear of loss of business or wages 
—__—_Fear of disclosure of age 

—____Disbelief in all political action 
—____Poor voting facilities 

——__—_Disgust with politics 

—___—Disgust with own party 
—____Ignorance or timidity regarding elections 
______Belief that the ballot box is corrupted 


Other reasons why people do not register and do not vote 





(Please sign your name) 


Q72 NON-VOTING 


[Front oF BLANK] 


QUESTIONNAIRE SENT TO PRECINCT COMMITTEEMEN 


SoctaL ResEARCH COMMITTEE OF THE DEPARTMENTS OF POLITICAL 
Economy, SocioLoGy, AND PoLiTICcAL SCIENCE OF 
Tue UNIveRsITY oF CHICAGO 


ADDRESS: FACULTY EXCHANGE, THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 


A STUDY OF NON-VOTING 


Purpose—All information given will be regarded as strictly confidential 
and will be used only in connection with the scientific study of non-voting. 
We ask your co-operation in filling out this questionnaire and in finding the 
names and addresses of adult citizens who do not register and who do not 
vote. 

Approximately how many adult citizens in your precinct are not 
registered ?. 

Please examine the following list of reasons why people do not register 
and mark with a cross (X) those which you have found common in your 
precinct and mark with a double cross (X X) those which you have found 
most common. This list is merely suggestive. Kindly indicate any other 
reasons that you regard as important. 


Unnaturalized 

____—LIllness 

—___Absence 

______Lack of residence qualifications 





General indifference to elections 





—_____Disbelief in woman’s voting 





Belief that one vote counts for nothing 
______Neglect— intended to register but failed, etc. 
_____Fear of loss of business or wages 
____Fear of disclosure of age 

Fear of jury duty 

—___—Disbelief in all political action 





Other reasons why people do not register 


FORMS USED IN STUDY OF NON-VOTING 273 


[Back or BLANK] 


Kindly examine the following list of reasons why persons who are regis- 
tered do not vote or mark with a cross (X) those which you have found 
common in your precinct and with a double cross (X X) those which you have 
found most common. Please indicate any additional reasons that occur 
to you. 


Illness 


Absence 





Congestion at the polls 





General indifference 





Belief that one vote counts for nothing 





Belief that the candidates are equally good 
——___Belief that the candidates are equally bad 
—___Neglect—intended to vote but failed 
_____Fear of loss of business or wages 








Objection to own party candidate and objection to vote for other 
party candidate 


—____No positive information about the candidates 


Additional reasons why people who are registered fail to vote 


If possible, please furnish a check-list showing the registered voters 
who did not vote last April. 

Kindly give below the names and addresses of at least ten adult citizens 
in your precinct who have not registered: 


(Signed) Committeeman ____ Ward ________ Precinct 





NON-VOTING 


274 





uorjery | Sgst 21001 S98T Aue y2T}S 
Para iene -SIZ01 SINT ‘SL PO | SoA | -yeq | ‘TL Apne] sex | sre9f gz] sueahg | sreakg | sivakg | svat g | ‘our g “Jax | °C fsaNyIsuy] HALe[D IS 











esst ‘Tudy onnesy 
“722118 | 9881 ae 
srreee ces sismrepy'M O68 [SSL°POLON [otto pt ot] sxead Tp] sxv0d [pH] stvVA g | suvatg | skep g | skep g |BIS1004) jaZ1004 ‘usny| -dv9q OST 
sqyuom % | ¢ggt ‘udy 
PENS ‘onueaAy | 8st TL8s1 hg | PENS 
O1181UQO LIS YYW 009% | “F “PO | SAX [°° °°" |'LG ABA] SOX | stv9A gg} suv9k y | suvakg | suvakg}| ‘our g |skep 0% -3u] ugor ‘aalTy| OeUKO 90S 
ssi ‘THdy 
PIS | L8sl ‘AUN Ses PINS 
ne EE oak OO OFS | *E “CO | SAX |‘1oLIedNg}*** ****]}"* "| srvad gg] SIvaA GZ] stBaA QI] SIBVAA ZY] ‘OULg |} ‘OUT g | -esseyT | pf ‘UIA, ‘SouTY OO OFS 
4 n Q rg > 
peel ¢ BS pie ee |e oe = ela 
aauaisiony | 25 5 E <n so M2 Ss = on q 
sxuvnay | isvy NaH | 4429] 3 | aan0og] Fz B apy 3 “ cS be 3 aNVN HONAGISAY 
gonaaisay | & 4 § rg? Hi 5 = 
om 8 N 
eo 2 5 
e = E GONTGISaY AO WAAy, 








qduvmM DONDWadd SYUMLOA HO WALSIOTa 


APPENDIX C 


SUGGESTIONS AS TO PROCEDURE IN 
FUTURE STUDIES OF 
NON-VOTING 


The present study of non-voting was largely experimental. 
There was no previous study of similar scope upon which to draw 
for suggestions. Since a purely trial-and-error method was followed, 
it was natural that some mistakes were made. On the basis of 
experience gained in this study, the following recommendations 
are made for the benefit of those interested in making local surveys 
of non-voting. Until many different local surveys have been made 
at different times, it will not be possible to make many generaliza- 
tions about the causes of non-voting. 

In the first place, the study should be made of a national election 
rather than of a local election. Complicating local factors make 
generalizations difficult. Another problem that might be studied is 
the variation in the registered vote cast in different elections. A 
great deal can be done in this respect on the basis of figures that were 
readily available. The present investigators were more concerned 
with the causes of non-voting, general and special, in so far as they 
can be ascertained by a census of non-voters in a particular election. 


INTERVIEWING NON-VOTERS 


If a survey of non-voting takes the form of a census of indi- 
vidual non-voters, it is wise to make this census as soon as possible 
after the election. If this is not done, it will be found that many 
of the non-voters have moved or have forgotten why they did not 
vote. It might be advisable to send out a large corps of workers 
immediately after the election. However, the difficulty of getting 
a large corps of efficient field workers for such a task should not be 
overlooked. If classes of students are assigned to this work, it will 
be necessary to do some careful checking. If the money is avail- 
able, it will be found better to appoint students to fellowships or to 
hire trained investigators. Unfortunately, students do not always 

‘ take their class work seriously. In the second place, if time and 
‘money permit, the canvass should be intensive as well as extensive. 


275 


276 ; NON-VOTING 


Complete and thoroughgoing studies should be made of typical 
precincts. If an attempt is made to get complete returns, the 
chances of securing all types of non-voters will be much greater than 
if the canvass is made in a hurried fashion. The canvass should | 
show the nature and composition of the entire adult population of 
the precinct, non-citizens as well as citizens, voters as well as non- 
voters. Contacts with the voters are valuable because they 
throw light on the reasons why people vote. More must be known 
about the situations that stimulate voting before anything definitive 
can be said about the causes of non-voting. 


TABULATING DATA 


If four or five thousand persons are interviewed, it will be 
found very convenient and advisable to use the Hollerith punch 
cards for the tabulations. If it is known in advance that the punch 
cards will be used for tabulating the data, the schedule of inter- 
viewing non-voters should be so adapted that it can be readily 
coded. The schedule used in the present study is not found very 
suitable for this purpose. Opposite is given a revised schedule 
which can be coded very easily, and which contains additional items 
of information relevant to the study of non-voting that were not 
included on the schedule used in the present study. 

The reverse side of the card should be left blank or lined for 
additional comments. All the material that is to be tabulated 
should appear upon the face of the card. 

Prominent among the additional items are certain matters re- 
lating to education and literacy. This form contains the code as well 
as a detailed statement of items that may not be necessary to trans- 
fer to the punch cards. ‘The code numbers can be filled in by the 
investigator at the time of the interview or shortly after. These 
numbers will enable the investigator to perform the routine part 
of recording the results of the interview with a minimum of writing. 
The reverse side of the cards should be available for reproductions 
of the reactions of the persons interviewed and for interesting com- 
ments by the investigator. 

Secondly, in taking the matter from the counting machines it 
will be found helpful to use forms that are as nearly like the final 
tables to be used as possible. Many errors are made in the 
transfer of the data from one table to another. The machine 
gives cross-totals which enable the work to be checked as it is 
taken down. 


PROCEDURE IN FUTURE STUDIES Q77 


SCHEDULE 


File number_____ Datte 
Ward____ Name 


____ Precinct. Address 


Oe { (1) Masculine 
(2) Feminine 








Investigator 








(1) White 
(2) Colored. 





Color { 


(1) Native 
(2) Naturalized 





Type of citizenship { 


(1) U.S. (2) Eng.orCan. (3) Ir. (4) Ger. 
Place of birth;(5) Scand. (6) Russ. (7) Pol. (8) Oth. SI. 
(9) Ital. (10) Oth. for. (11) Un. 


—_____Nativity of father 


Term of residence at present address 








Term of residence in county or city 





Term of residence in the United States 


___Age (state how accurately obtained) © 








(1) Ind. (2) Sk. (3) Un-sk. (4) Ret. 
Occupation, (5) Trav. (6) Prof. (7) Railrd. (8) Clr. 
(9) Dom. (10) Hw. (11) No. 


(1) Hd. (2) WE. (3) Sn. (4) Dau. 
Family status, (5) Rm. (6) Badr. (7) Par. (8) Oth. Rel. 
(9) Ser. (10) Oth. (11) Un. 


—____Rent per month 
Type of dwelling { 





(1) H. (2) Ap. (3) Fi. 
(4) Hot. (5) Oth. 


Education (number of years in school) 











(1) Eng. (2) Ger. (3) Slav. (4) Yid. 
Speaks { (5) Hat eae. (7) Oth. for. 
bl (1) Yes 
eece Able to read { &) No 


(1) Voted 

(2) Never voted 

(1) Registered 

(2) Not registered 
______ Reasons for not voting (see code below) 





Voting experience 


____ Registered status} 





278 NON-VOTING 


Lastly, in cross-tabulations, the different complex explanations 
of non-voting should be used as well as the less important reasons 
given. A suggested code for these combinations is given below. 


CODE FOR REASONS FOR NOT VOTING 


. Illness 

. Detained by helpless member of family 

. Absence 

. Insufficient legal residence 

. General indifference 

. Indifference to last election 

. Neglect—intended to vote but failed 

. Ignorance or timidity regarding elections 

9. Congestion at the polls 

10. Poor location of polling booth 

11. Failure of party workers 

12. Disbelief in woman’s voting 

13. Objections of husband 

14. Belief that one vote counts for nothing 

15. Disgust with politics 

16. Disgust with own party 

17. Belief that ballot box is corrupt 

18. Disbelief in all political action 

19. Fear of loss of business or wages 

20. Fear of disclosure of age 

21. General indifference and ignorance regarding elections 
22. General indifference and disbelief in woman’s voting 
23. General indifference and disgust with politics 

24. General indifference and insufficient legal residence 
25. Fear of loss of business or wages and congestion at the polls 
26-100. Other combinations as found 


On co oO & OO KH 


In compiling tables, it will be found profitable to use trained clerical 
workers or students who have had some experience in statistical or 
accounting fields. The ordinary college student is not adapted to 
statistical work. 

CONTROL GROUPS 


In making a study of non-voting it is not possible to progress 
very far without establishing control groups. The best control 
group would be the voters in the same areas where the non-voters 
were found. However, it may prove difficult to make a complete 
census on the adult-citizen population differentiated into voting and 
non-voting classes. An excellent control group for studies of non- 
voting is provided for by the United States Census figures showing 


PROCEDURE IN FUTURE STUDIES 279 


the character of composition of the adult-citizen population. How- 
ever, if the best use of these figures were made, it would be possible 
to conduct surveys of non-voting only in census years. It should 
be remembered that census figures are often held up for three or 
four years, and a presidential election coincides with a federal census 
once in every twenty years. A tabulation for enumeration dis- 
tricts may be obtained from the United States Census Office, if 
money for this work is advanced. If special tabulations are to be 
made, they should be started early in the study so that they can 
be used as a check on the work of the investigators as well as a con- 
trol group. The matter that is organized by the census-tabulation 
districts can be obtained at more reasonable rates than that by 
the enumeration districts. 


ASCERTAINING THE OPINION OF THE PARTY EXPERTS 


In this study the precinct captains whose names and addresses 
could be obtained from the central headquarters of the various local 
party organizations were canvassed by means of a questionnaire 
sent through the mails. The questionnaire used, as the accompany- 
ing facsimile (p. 271) shows, contained a list of reasons why people 
do not register and do not vote, which the committeemen were 
asked to check in such a way as to indicate roughly their importance. 
Those reasons which they regarded as most important were to be 
checked with a double cross (XX), and those which they simply 
regarded as of common importance were to be checked with a 
cross (X). 

This experiment showed that the party workers do not like to 
respond to any request for an objective analysis of their own func- 
tions. Only one precinct committeeman out of all the 3,800 can- 
vassed in this study gave an elaborate analysis of what he knew 
about non-voting. While the replies which were received from the 
precinct committeemen had many interesting comments on them, 
they could not be used for any reliable quantitative estimates. 
Many of the precinct committeemen marked nearly all of the 
reasons, and only a few tried to give them any rank order. 
Personal interviews with committeemen were much more fruitful 
than the questionnaires in eliciting full and trustworthy responses. 

In this study a questionnaire was also sent to the Democratic 
and{Republican ward committeemen, some of the candidates run- 
ning in the judicial election of 1923, some of the leaders of the 
different civic organizations in the city and some of the local 


280 NON-VOTING 


municipal officeholders. ‘The proportion of usable answers received 
from these persons was much higher than that obtained from 
the precinct committeemen. Ninety-eight persons out of 250 
responded. The opinion of these persons whom we will call the 
“prominent party experts”? were, in general, more carefully con- 
sidered than those of the precinct committeemen. 

From this it is clear that a questionnaire on non-voting sent to 
responsible leaders is likely to produce much better results than 
that sent to the precinct workers. If the questionnaire method is 
used, it might be wise to ask that the reasons be put in rank order so 
that the results can be put in a form of frequency distribution. In 
the present study it was almost impossible to make any statistical 
analysis of the estimates as to the importance of the different 
reasons .of non-voting that were given on the questionnaire. 








INDEX 


Absence, a reason for not voting, 
63-72 

Absent Electors’ Law: Illinois, 52, 
63, 72; greater use of urged, 
234-35, 256 

Absent-voting laws, 234-35, 237 

Administrative obstacles to voting, 
78 ff. 

Adult citizens, per cent registered: 
in city, 26; in typical precincts, 
208-9, 212-14, 217, 219, 229, 
227, 229 

Ages of non-voters, 29-30, 60, 104, 
127-28, 162, 209 

Anderson, N., 79 n., 226 n. 

Anti-suffragists, 109-22 


Ballot, form of, and non-voting, 237 

Ballot-box corruption, a cause of 
non-voting, 147-54 

Barasa, Bernard, candidate for 
mayor in Republican primary, 
137, 141 

Barnett, J. D., 241 n. 

Barthelemy, J., 241 n. 
Belief that ballot box is corrupted, 
a reason for not voting, 147-54 
Belief that candidates are equally 
bad, a reason for not voting, 
133-34 

Belief that one vote counts for 
nothing, a reason for not voting, 
142-47 

Board of Assessors, attitude of non- 
voters toward, 131 

Board of Local Improvements, 
attitude of non-voters toward, 
124 

Bohemian non-voters, reasons for 
not voting given by, 42, 66, 90, 
149. See Czech and Slavic non- 
voters 

Bonus veto, attitude of non-voters 
toward, 129-30 


Brunet, R., 220 n. 


Bureau of Streets, attitude of non- 
voters toward, 130-31 


Business men, reasons for not 
voting given by, 48-50, 67-68, 
178-79 


Cable Act, 117 n. 


Canadian non-voters, reasons for 
not voting given by, 42. See 
also English non-voters 


Case studies of individual non- 
voters, 18, 58-62, 68-72, 74-77, 
82-86, 92-95, 99-102, 104-8, 
112-15, 119-21, 129-34, 139-41, 
145-47, 151-57, 164-68, 172-74, 
178-82, 187-94, 197-200, 204-7, 
235 

Causes of non-voting, 
analysis of, 25-51, 250-55 


Census-enumeration districts of the 
United States, special tabulation 


general 


of adult citizens in, 13-14, 
208-9, 278-79 ff. 
Chicago, electoral problems in, 


vii-xi, 95, 107, 159, 174, 192 
Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency, 
238 n. 
Citizenship training, 
non-voting, 244-46 
City Club Bulletin, 148 n. 
City Election Act, 53, 96 


Clerical workers, reasons for not 
voting given by, 48-50, 163, 180 

Colored non-voters: attitude toward = 
disfranchisement in South, 82-84; 
reasons for not voting given by, 
39-41, 80-84, 93, 114-15, 120, 
1386-42, 152, 155-56, 172-73, 
185, 188, 196, 199-200, 207-12 

Colored precinct, special analysis 
of non-voting in, 207-12 

Committeemen, party, on non- 
voting. See Precinct committee- 
men 


Compulsory voting, discussion of, 
241-43, 257-58 


a cure for 


283 


284 


Congestion at the polls, a reason for 
not voting, 96-101 

Controlling non-voting, methods of, 
232-49 

Cosmopolitan precinct, non-voting 
in, 229-30 

Cunnea, William A., candidate for 
mayor, 28 

Czech non-voters, reasons for not 
voting given by, 42, 126, 229. 


See also Bohemian and Slavic 
non-voters 
Democratic party, attitude of 


colored non-voters toward, 139-41 

Democratic precinct committeemen, 
special analysis of non-voting by, 
202-7 

Depressing the vote, methods of, 
247-48 

Detention by helpless member of 
family, a reason for not voting, 
72-77; methods of relief for, 235 

Dever, William E., candidate for 
mayor, 28, 68, 195, 207 

Disbelief in all political action, a 
reason for not voting, 154-57 


Disbelief in voting, a reason for not 
voting, 123-57 

Disbelief in woman’s voting, a 
reason for not voting, 109-22, 
253-54 

Disgust with own party, a reason 
for not voting, 134-42, 206 

Disgust with politics, a reason for 
not voting, 124-34, 254 

Domestic workers, reasons for not 
voting given by, 48-50, 91, 112, 
163, 180 

Donaldson, W. T., 241 n. 


Education, need of political, 236-37, 
243-46, 257 

Election Commissioners, xii, 25-26, 
96, 108, 148 

English non-voters, reasons for not 
voting given by, 42, 176. See 
also Canadian non-voters 

Election system in Chicago, 108. 
See also Chicago 

Evans, E. C., 247 n. 


NON-VOTING 


Failure of party workers, a reason 
for not voting, 194-200 


Fear of disclosure of age, a reason 
for not voting, 103-6, 204 


Fear of jury duty, a reason for not 
voting, 106 


Fear of loss of business or wages, 
a reason for not voting, 86-95; 
case studies of individuals giving, 
92-95 

Female non-voters, reasons for not 
voting given by, 36-38, 88-89, 
103-6, 109-22, 161, 184 


Foreign-born non-voters, 6; reasons 
for not voting given by, 39-43, 
144, 156-57, 161-62, 187, 196, 
219-20. See also Bohemian, 
Canadian, Czech, English, 
German, Irish, Italian, Jewish, 
Jugo-Slav, Polish, Russian, 
Scandinavian, and Slavic non- 
voters 


Gavit, J. P., 85 n. 


General indifference, a reason for 
not voting, 158-68, 254-55 


German non-voters, reasons for not 
voting given by, 41-43, 55-57, 
65-66, 73, 89-91, 93-94, 97, 
111-13, 117, 120, 149, 163, 198, 
205, 219-20, 256 


German precinct, 
219-20, 256 

Ghetto district, non-voters in, 101, 
107, 182, 153 

“Gold Coast” district, non-voters 
in, 68, 101, 212-13 


non-voters in, 


Habitual non-voters, reasons for 
not voting given by, 27-32, 37-39, 
80, 92, 129, 161, 184-85, 225 

Harding, President, attitude of non- 
voters toward, 124, 205 

Harris, J. P., 154 n., 238 n. 

Haynes, G. H., 238 n. 

Hollerith punch cards, 12; 
used, 270 

Home-nursing duties, a reason for 
not voting, 72 ff. See also Deten- 
tion by helpless member of family 


Hotels, non-voters in, 216-18 


form 


INDEX 


Hours of voting: inconvenience of, 
in Chicago, 88, 92-93, 102; need 
of changing, 233 


Housewives: absence of, 68-71; 
causes of non-voting among, 
49-50; disbelief in woman’s 


voting by, 112-22; disgust with 
politics by, 144-46; home-nursing 
duties of, 72-77; ignorance of, 
187-94; illness of, 57-62; indiffer- 
ence of, 164-68; neglect by, 181-82 

Hyde Park district, non-voters in, 
68, 214-18 


Ignorance regarding elections, a 
reason for not voting, 183-94; 
method of eliminating, 235-38 


Illinois Supreme Court, decision of, 
on law entitling voter to absent 
himself from work, 87, 95, 234 


Illness, a reason for not voting, 53-62 


Indifference to particular election, a 
reason for not voting, 168—74 


Indifferent electors. See General 
indifference 


Inertia, a cause of non-voting, 158- 
201, 254-55; removal of, 243-46. 
See also Failure of party workers; 
General indifference; Ignorance 
regarding elections; Indifference 
to particular election; Neglect; 
Timidity 

Instructions to investigators, 262-69 

Interviewing non-voters, method of, 
5-11, 275-76 

Intimidation, a cause of non-voting, 
107-8 

Irish non-voters, reasons for not 
voting given by, 41-43, 55-56, 
73, 89, 93,:111-13, 170-72, 227-28 

Italian non-voters, reasons for not 
voting given by, 41-42, 55, 65, 
89, 111, 117, 119, 137-38, 149, 
161, 170, 198-99, 224-25, 229 


Jewish non-voters, reasons for not 
voting given by, 73, 176, 218, 221— 
22, 228-29. See also Russian 
non-voters 

Jugo-Slavs, non-voting among, 126. 
See also Slavic non-voters 


Ku Klux Klan, attitude of non- 
voters toward, 138 


285 


Laborers, reasons for not voting 
given by, 48-50, 81, 91, 93-95, 
128-30, 144 

Lack of positive information about 
candidates, a reason for not 
voting, 183, 193-94 

Lack of residence qualifications, a 
reason for not voting. See Resi- 
dence qualifications 


League of Women Voters, viil, 3 n. 

Legal obstacles to voting, 78 ff. 

Loop business district, non-voters in, 
146, 150-52, 225-26 

Los Angeles, registration for voting 
in, 239 

Lueder, Arthur C., candidate for 
mayor, 28, 138-41, 146, 194, 203, 
206 


Mail Ballot Movement, 237 n. 

Male non-voters, reasons for not 
voting given by, 36-38, 64, 88-89, 
126, 161, 184 

Mayoralty election, ix—x, 2-3, 134- 
39 

Methods: of controlling non-voting, 
232-49, 256-58; of studying non- 
voting, 1-24, 250 

Milwaukee, registration for voting 
in, 240-41 

Municipal Voters’ League, viii 


Native white non-voters of native 
parentage, reasons for not voting 
given by, 39-41, 65, 85-86, 89, 
115, 121, 153 

Naturalization, possible study of, 20 


Naturalized citizens, reasons for not 
voting given by, 39-43, 117 

Neglect, a reason for not voting, 
174-82 

Negroes, non-voting among, 39-41, 
80-84. See also Colored non- 
voters 


Non-voters: age of, 29; color and 
nativity of, 6; habitual, 11, 27; 
methods of examining, 6-12; 
reasons for not voting given by, 
34 ff.; registration status of, 26; 
sex of, 7; term of residence in 
city of, 31. See also Reasons for 
not voting 


“> Non-voting: 


286 


causes of, 25 ff.; 
methods of studying, 1 ff. See 
also Causes of non-voting; Non- 
voters; Reasons for not voting 


Objections of husband, a reason for 
not voting, 116-22 


Occupations of non-voters, relation 
of, to reasons given for not voting, 
48-50, 128, 150, 163, 178 


Party experts on non-voting, 4-6, 
63; questionnaires sent to, 271- 
73, 279-80. See also Precinct 
committeemen 


People v. C. M. & St. P. R.R. Co., 
87 n. 


Philadelphia, registration frauds in, 
239 


Physical difficulties, as causes of 
non-voting, 52 ff., 253 


Polish non-voters, reasons for not 
voting given by, 41-43, 55-56, 
90, 93, 97, 126-27, 176, 222-24 

Polish precinct, non-voters in, 222- 
24, 256 

Polling places, poor location of, a 
cause of non-voting, 95-102 

Precinct committeemen, on non- 
voting, 79, 124, 135, 194-95, 202- 
7, 210-12, 217-18, 226-27 

Precinct studies, 17-19, 202-31, 
255-56 

Primary election, February, 1923, viii 

Professional workers, reasons for 
not voting given by, 48-50, 70, 
164, 181 

Prohibition, attitude of non-voters 
toward, 124, 129-30 

Publicity pamphlets, 237-38 


Questionnaire forms used, 271-73 


Ray, P. O., 234 n. 


Reasons for not registering, 38-39, 
196. See also Reasons for not 
voting 

Reasons for not voting given by non- 
voters, 9-10, 32-51, 52 ff., 251— 
55, 259-61; combinations of, 32- 
35, 259-61; relation of: to age of 
non-voters, 39-43; to economic 
status of non-voters as shown by 


NON-VOTING 


rent, 46-48; nationality of non- 
voters, 39-43; to occupation of 
non-voters, 49-50; to registra- 
tion status of non-voters, 38-39; 
to sex of non-voters, 36-38; 
validity of, 13-17 
Registered vote cast, proportion of, 
174; in typical precincts, 209, 
213-14, 217, 222, 227-28 
Registration, official, use of, in 
foreign countries, 239-41 
Registration system, in Chicago, 
vii—viii, 103, 153-54, 168; need 
of reform of, 238-41, 256 
Religious objections to voting, 156 
Rents paid by non-voters, relation 
of, to non-voting, 46-48, 56, 67, 
118-19, 127, 186, 196 
Republican party, in Chicago, 135 
Residence of non-voters, relation of 
term of, to non-voting, 43-46, 90, 
162-63, 165-66, 185-86, 191-93 
Residence qualifications, lack of, a 
reason for not voting, 79-86 
Russian non-voters, reasons for not 
voting given by, 41-43, 55-56, 
65-66, 90, 97-98, 170, 198. See 
also Jewish non-voters 


Scandinavian non-voters, reasons 
for not voting given by, 41-43, 
56-57, 65-66, 73, 89-91, 162, 220- 
21. See also Swedish non-voters 

Scandinavian precinct, non-voters 
in, 220-21, 256 

Schedule for interviewing non-voters, 
264-65; revised form, 277-78 

Schwartz, U.S., 159 n. 

School Board, attitude of non-voters 
toward, 124, 131 

Shopkeepers, reasons for not voting 
given by, 48-50, 91-92 

Short ballot, need of, 244, 257 

Skilled workers, reasons for not 
voting given by, 48-50, 68-69 

Slavic non-voters, 89, 113-14, 126—- 
27, 161, 176, 199. See also 
Bohemian, Czech, Jugo-Slav, and 
Polish non-voters 

Slocum, R. W., 238 n. 

Socialists, reasons for not voting 
given by, 143, 147, 153, 157, 205 


INDEX 


Stimulation of voting, 246-47 


Stockyards district, non-voters in, 
99-100, 120, 222-24, 227-98. 
See Irish and Polish districts 


Students, non-voting among, 180-81 
Snedden, D., 245 n. 


Swedish non-voters, reasons for not 
voting given by, 41-43. See 
also Scandinavian non-voters 


Taxation system, hostile attitude 
of non-voters toward, 205 


Telephone Company, Chicago, rent 
survey made by, 11 

Thompson, William Hale, ex-mayor 
of Chicago, attitude of non-voters 
toward, 138-41, 203-7, 215 

Timidity regarding elections, a rea- 
son for not voting, 183, 187-94, 
methods of treating, 235-38 


287 


Transport workers, reasons for not 
voting given by, 48-50, 68-69 

Traveling salesman, reasons for not 
voting given by, 48-50, 68-70, 
163-64 


Unskilled workers, reasons for not 
voting given by, 48-50, 163 


Voters, sample of, compared with 
non-voters, 12, 29-32 

Voting facilities, inadequacy of, in 
Chicago, 95-102 


Woman suffrage, in Chicago, ix, 110; 
in foreign countries, 121, 257 

Woodlawn district, non-voters in, 94 

Workingmen, reasons for not voting 
given by, 48-50, 98, 179-80. 
See also Laborers; Skilled work- 
ers; Unskilled workers 


PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. 








T 4 
Te { Leg R 
be 4 ‘ Ves 
ay PAs, bi¥t 
‘| ae yaya tytr '* 
i} Hi Oy, v -% , 
X ae i AS war 4} 
: ' \ hi 4 
rf 
.f \ 
say 
4 Ve 
i) 
rg i 
‘ 
: 
‘ 
' 
’ 
na 
| 
i 
- 
= ‘ 
: 
ui 
2 f 
} St & 
’ * 
r 
} 
. 
4 i 
war. f 
¥ u } 
. 4 AN 
t Sy ¢ } 








st 
= 
<x 
ao 
c 
a 
= 
So 
= 
Ho 
= 
a 
oO 
> 
= 
(7) 
Cc 
tu 
= 
= 
= 


SSS 
——>= 
————————— 
—————————— 
—— 
oo 
=—=—=——== 
=== 
—EEEEe 


Il 


| 
| 











